A GaAs Bit-Slice Microprocessor Chip Set
Norm Hendrickson, William Larkins, Robert Deming, Richard Bartolotti, Ira Deyhimy · 1987
A GaAs chip set comprising the critical path elements for a bit-slice microprocessor family is described. The 3-chip set consists of a 4-bit slice multifunction ALU with an on-board 16 × 42-port RAM, a 12-bit programmable sequencer and a carry look-ahead generator for a 16-bit wide data path. These devices, which are currently in production, are architecturally and functionally equivalent to the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 2901, 2910A, and 2902, respectively. These chips were developed utilizing the Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. Vl process, which is a GaAs MESFET self-aligned gate enhancement depletion (E/D) process, designed to optimize reproducibility of digital LSI. Performance of a 16-bit microprocessor system implemented in this technology is compared with the traditional bit-slice approach using silicon parts, and is shown to be at least a factor of 3 faster.