Macrostore firmware emulation as an alternative to co-processors
Macrostores and co-processors are contrasting approaches to solving the problem of extending a microprocessor's instruction set to provide more features and enhance performance. The Texas Instruments 99000 microprocessor family is the first to offer macrostore capability with 1024 bytes of on-chip emulation ROM and 32 bytes of on-chip scratchpad RAM. The generic 99000 16-bit microprocessor and provides a complete general purpose instruction set plus 12 single precision floating point instructions. The 99110 is the first set of the 99000 processor family to be offered with macrostore. The Intel 8087 numeric data processor (NDP), designed for use with the Intel 8086 and 8088 microprocesors, is the first co-processor to be made available. This paper contrasts the two approaches, the 99110 single chip macrostore solution versus the 8086/8087 two-chip co-processors solution as alternative ways of enhancing processing power.
- OSTI ID:
- 5213633
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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