Quantitative Study of Pipeline Management Strategy in Micro Processor Design
C Lab · Mini-micro Systems · 2004
The design issues of the Program/Pipeline Control Unit(PCU) in microprocessors was discussed. Factors that complexify PCU design are analyzed. Latency and pipeline stall caused by asynchronization and data dependency are investigated respectively. A quantitative analysis method is proposed. This method can reveal the implicit principle that should be observed in pipeline control no matter what system architecture it is. It can help designers design PCU module correctly and systematically. We have employed this method in the PCU design of a 16 bit fixed point DSP core successfully. It is proved to be efficient. It reduces the PCU design and verification cycle significantly.