On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 6:01 PM, Barry L. Kline <blkline at attglobal.net>wrote: microcode vs. assembly

I am confused. I can understand a holy way : machine code .vs. assembly but microdode is not really related to those, it relates to the internal deisng of the processor control system. You cna of cours write microcode in a form of assembly language, I've done so many times, and have written several mcirocode assmeblers and diassemblers. When does a 'state machine' become 'microcode' though? To a hardware person they are very similar. -tony

So if you make a cotnrol system using a latch and a PROM programemd to contain the state transistion logic for what I would term a 'state machine', then it's microcode? And if you repalce the microcodoe ROMs in a processor with a large board of decoder ICs and logical OR gates (which is all a ROM is intenrally), said processor ceases to br microcoded? -tony

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