The Mano machine is a computer theoretically described by M. Morris Mano. It contains a central processing unit, random access memory, and an input-output bus. Its limited instruction set and small address space limit it to use as a microcontroller, but it can easily be expanded to have a 32-bit accumulator register, and 28-bit addressing using a hardware description language like Verilog or VHDL; and at the same time, make room for new instructions.
Characteristics
The Mano machine is similar in many respects to the PDP-8, such as the same address space, only one accumulator register, and many similar instructions. The Mano machine has a 4096x16 shared data/program memory segment requiring a 12-bit address bus. The data bus is 16 bits. There are 8-bit input/output buses for external communication, and associated interrupt flags.
There is one 16-bit accumulator register, and single-bit registers (latches) for addition carry and system halt.
Instruction set
There are 25 instructions that fall into 3 categories: direct / indirect memory referencing operations, register referencing operations, and input/output/interrupt operations.
Each instruction is 16 bits long . This means that memory referencing instructions contain 4 bits of op-code data, and 12 bits dedicated to the address.
| Bit 15 | Bits 14-12 | Bits 11-0 | Mnemonic | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | (Direct address) | AND | And direct memory to accumulator |
| 0 | 1 | (Direct address) | ADD | Add direct memory to accumulator (affects carry bit) |
| 0 | 2 | (Direct address) | LDA | Load direct memory to accumulator |
| 0 | 3 | (Direct address) | STA | Store accumulator to direct memory |
| 0 | 4 | (Direct address) | BUN | Unconditionally branch to direct memory |
| 0 | 5 | (Direct address) | BSA | Store current program counter to direct memory and branch to following address |
| 0 | 6 | (Direct address) | ISZ | Increment value in direct memory and skip next instruction if the sum is zero |
| 1 | 0-6 | (Indirect address) | Indirect addressing versions of the above instructions | |
| 0 | 7 | 800 | CLA | Clear the accumulator |
| 0 | 7 | 400 | CLE | Clear the carry bit |
| 0 | 7 | 200 | CMA | Complement the accumulator |
| 0 | 7 | 100 | CME | Complement the carry bit |
| 0 | 7 | 080 | CIR | Circulate accumulator right (through carry bit) |
| 0 | 7 | 040 | CIL | Circulate accumulator left (through carry bit) |
| 0 | 7 | 020 | INC | Increment accumulator (does not affect carry bit) |
| 0 | 7 | 010 | SPA | Skip next instruction if accumulator is positive |
| 0 | 7 | 008 | SNA | Skip next instruction if accumulator is negative |
| 0 | 7 | 004 | SZA | Skip next instruction if accumulator is zero |
| 0 | 7 | 002 | SZE | Skip next instruction if carry bit is zero |
| 0 | 7 | 001 | HLT | Halt computer by clearing the halt bit latch |
| 1 | 7 | 800 | INP | Input from character bus to accumulator |
| 1 | 7 | 400 | OUT | Output from accumulator to character bus |
| 1 | 7 | 200 | SKI | Skip next instruction if input flag is set |
| 1 | 7 | 100 | SKO | Skip next instruction if output flag is set |
| 1 | 7 | 080 | ION | Enable interrupts |
| 1 | 7 | 040 | IOF | Disable interrupts |
Applications to computer optimization theory
The machine specifications include a finite-state machine that determines the processor's micro-operations. The canonical implementation of the state machine is an excellent candidate for reduction, and can also be re-implemented as a pipelined processor.
External links
- Mark Roth's Mano machine assembler/simulator
- MANOSIM and MANOASM binaries and guide page
- A VHDL implementation of the Mano Machine by N. Narasimhamurthi
- A Verilog implementation of the Mano Machine by Greg Toombs
- An in-browser Mano Machine simulator (Java Applet)
References
Mano, M. Morris (October 1992). Computer System Architecture (3rd ed.). Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-175563-3.
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