Control store

A control store is the part of a CPU's control unit that stores the CPU's microprogram. It is usually accessed by a microsequencer. Early types of control store took the form of diode-arrays that were accessed via address decoders, but were later implemented as writable microcode that was stored in a form of read only memory called a writable control store. The outputs generally had to go through a register to prevent a race condition from occurring. The register was clocked by the clock signal of the system it was running on.

Early control stores were implemented as a diode-array accessed via address decoders, a form of read-only memory. This tradition dates back to the program timing matrix on the MIT Whirlwind, first described in 1947. Modern VLSI processors instead use matrices of field-effect transistors to build the ROM and/or PLA structures used to control the processor as well as its internal sequencer in a microcoded implementation.

Some computers were built using "writable microcode" — rather than storing the microcode in ROM or hard-wired logic, the microcode was stored in a RAM called a writable control store or WCS. Such a computer is sometimes called a Writable Instruction Set Computer or WISC. Many of these machines were experimental laboratory prototypes, such as the WISC CPU/16 and the RTX 32P.

The original System/360 models of IBM mainframe had read-only control store, but later System/360, System/370 and successor models loaded part or all of their microprograms from floppy disks or other DASD into a writable control store consisting of ultra-high speed random-access read-write memory. The System/370 architecture included a facility called Initial-Microprogram Load (IML or IMPL) that could be invoked from the console, as part of Power On Reset (POR) or from another processor in a tightly coupled multiprocessor complex. This permitted IBM to easily repair microprogramming defects in the field. Even when the majority of the control store is stored in ROM, computer vendors would often sell writable control store as an option, allowing the customers to customize the machine's microprogram. Other vendors, e.g., IBM, use the WCS to run microcode for emulator features and hardware diagnostics.

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