[Computer Architecture] data path

intro - where are we now?

the cpu

Processor - datapath - control

cenario in RISC-V machine

The datapath and control

Overview

• problem: single monolithic bloc
• solution: break up the process of excuting an instruction into stages
  • smaller stages are easier to design –
  • easy to optimize &modularity

five stages

• Instruction Fetch
  • pc+=4
  • take full use of mem hierarchy
• Instruction Decode
• read the opcode to determine instruction type and field lengths
• second, (at the same time!) read in data from all necessary registers
  • for add, read two registers
  • for addi, read one register
• third, generate the immediates
• ALU
  • the real work of most instructions is done here: arithmetic (+, -, *, /), shifting, logic (&, |)
  • For instance, it's load and store
    • lw t0, 40(t1)
    • the address we are accessing in memory = the value in t1 PLUS the value 40
    • so we do this addition in this stage
• Mem access
  • Actually only the load and store instruction do anything during this stage.
  • it's fast but unavoidable
• Register write
  • write the result of some computation into a register.
  • for stores and brances idle
    

    misc

    

  

  memory alignment

  

data path elements state and sequencing

register

instruction level

add

time diagram for add

addi

lw

sw - critical path

combined I+S Immediate generation

branches

pipelining

summary

quiz

for D

for E