View unanswered posts | View active topics It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:24 pm



Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 
 NED's 16-bit ABLE seen in Synclavier and AppleTalk routers 
Author Message

Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 6:54 pm
Posts: 1780
.
From 1973, a 16-bit transport-triggered architecture with just the single opcode MOVE. Apparently, usually programmed in XPL, a PL/I derivative.

There's an explanation and even an HDL model here.

Quote:
The most notable feature of the Able processor is its single instruction - a MOVE from source to destination. Each instruction has an 8-bit source field and a 8-bit destination field. There is no opcode field. Arithmetic and control operations are encoded as special destinations. This makes the Able a transport-triggered architecture.

The Able had 16 16-bit registers. Memory references used a register for the address, with no addressing arithmetic. The PC was register 15, except in the interrupt state when it was register 14 (register 14 thus served as an interrupt handler pointer).

The Able bus transferred 16-bit data for 7-bit device addresses and 16-bit memory addresses. Bus transfers were asynchronous - the instruction would stall until the device acknowledged the transfer. For example, the single instruction which moved a character from the keyboard to the display would stall until a key was hit. In practice, devices included addresses for control and status registers to avoid such stalls. Late models of the Able, used in the Synclavier, added memory mapping registers to address several gigabytes of audio sample RAM.


Sun Aug 19, 2018 8:34 pm
Profile

Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 7:39 pm
Posts: 22
Interesting finding - thx BigEd !

Reading this it reminds me to the "computer 74" from Elektor ("the first DIY computer project from a magazine? 1974 Elektor").

Perhaps J.T.W. Damen was inspired by the ABLE machine?


Fri Sep 14, 2018 7:36 pm
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 2 posts ] 

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
Designed by ST Software