Mano machine
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 HDL 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 [4 nybbles, or 1 word]. This means that memory referencing instructions contain 4 bits of op-code data, and 12 bits dedicated to the address. 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 Educational abstract machines