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Floating Point Coprocessors Essay Research Paper Floating

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Floating Point Coprocessors Essay, Research Paper

Floating Point Coprocessors

The designer of any microprocessor would like to extend its instruction

set almost infinitely but is limited by the quantity of silicon available (not

to mention the problems of testability and complexity). Consequently, a real

microprocessor represents a compromise between what is desirable and what is

acceptable to the majority of the chip’s users. For example, the 68020

microprocessor is not optimized for calculations that require a large volume of

scientific (i.e. floating point) calculations. One method to significantly

enhance the performance of such a microprocessor is to add a coprocessor. To

increase the power of a microprocessor, it does not suffice to add a few more

instructions to the instruction set, but it involves adding an auxiliary

processor that works in parallel to the MPU (Micro Processing Unit). A system

involving concurrently operating processors can be very complex, since there

need to be dedicated communication paths between the processors, as well as

software to divide the tasks among them. A practical multiprocessing system

should be as simple as possible and require a minimum overhead in terms of both

hardware and software. There are various techniques of arranging a coprocessor

alongside a microprocessor. One technique is to provide the coprocessor with an

instruction interpreter and program counter. Each instruction fetched from

memory is examined by both the MPU and the coprocessor. If it is a MPU

instruction, the MPU executes it; otherwise the coprocessor executes it. It can

be seen that this solution is feasible, but by no means simple, as it would be

difficult to keep the MPU and coprocessor in step. Another technique is to equip

the microprocessor with a special bus to communicate with the external

coprocessor. Whenever the microprocessor encounters an operation that requires

the intervention of the coprocessor, the special bus provides a dedicated high-

speed communication between the MPU and the coprocessor. Once again, this

solution is not simple. There are more methods of connecting two (or more)

concurrently operating processors, which will be covered in more detail during

the specific discussions of the Intel and Motorola floating point coprocessors.

Motorola Floating Point Coprocessor (FPC) 68882

The designers of the 68000-family coprocessors decided to implement

coprocessors that could work with existing and future generations of

microprocessors with minimal hardware and software overhead. The actual approach

taken by the Motorola engineers was to tightly couple the coprocessor to the

host microprocessor and to treat the coprocessor as a memory-mapped peripheral

lying inside the CPU address space. In effect, the MPU fetches instructions from

memory, and, if an instruction is a coprocessor instruction, the MPU passes it

to the coprocessor by means of the MPU’s asynchronous data transfer bus. By

adopting this approach, the coprocessor does not have to fetch or interpret

instructions itself. Thus if the coprocessor requires data from memory, the MPU

must fetch it. There are advantages and disadvantages to this design. Most

notably, the coprocessor does not have to deal with, for example, bus errors, as

all fetching is performed by the host MPU. On the other hand, the FPC can not

act as a bus master (making it a non-DMA device), making memory accesses by the

FPC slower than if it were directly connected to the address and data bus.

In order for the coprocessor to work as a memory mapped device, the

designers of the 68000 series of MPU’s had to set aside certain bit patterns to

represent opcodes for the FPC. In the case of the 68000’s, the FPC is accessed

through the opcode 1111(2). This number is the same as ?F’ in hexadecimal

notation, so this bit pattern is often referred to as the F-line.

Interface

The 68882 FPC employs an entirely conventional asynchronous bus

interface like all 68000 class devices, and absolutely no new signals whatsoever

are required to connect the unit to an MC 68020 MPU. The 68882 can be configured

to run under a variety of different circumstances, including various sized data

buses and clock speeds. What follows is a diagram of connections necessary to

connect the 68882 to a 68020 or 68030 MPU using a 32-bit data path.

As mentioned previously, all instructions for the FPC are of the F-line

format, that is, they begin with the bit pattern 1111(2). A generic coprocessor

instruction has the following format: the first four bits must be 1111. This

identifies the instruction as being for the coprocessor. The next three bits

identify the coprocessor type, followed by three bits representing the

instruction type. The meaning of the remaining bits varies depending on the

specific instruction.

Coprocessor Operation

When the MPU detects an F-line instruction, it writes the instruction

into the coprocessors memory mapped command register in CPU space. Having sent a

command to the coprocessor, the host processor reads the reply from the

coprocessor’s response register. The response could, for example, instruct the

processor to fetch data from memory. Once the host processor has complied with

the demands from the coprocessor, it is free to continue with instruction

processing, that is, both the processor and coprocessor act concurrently. This

is why system speed can be dramatically improved upon installation of a

coprocessor.

MC 68882 Specifics

The MC 68882 floating point coprocessor is basically a very simple

device, though it’s data manual is nearly as thick as that of the MC 68000. This

complexity is due to the IEEE floating point arithmetic standards rather than

the nature of the FPC. The 68882 contains eight 80-bit floating point data

registers, FP0 to FP7, one 32-bit control register, FPCR, and one 32-bit status

register, FPSR. Because the FPC is memory mapped in CPU space, these registers

are directly accessible to the programmer within the register space of the host

MPU. In addition to the standard byte, word and longword operations, the FPC

supports four new operand sizes: single precision real (.S), double precision

real (.D), extended precision real (.X) and packed decimal string (.P). All on-

chip calculations take place in extended precision format and all floating point

registers hold extended precision values. The single real and double real

formats are used to input and output operands. All three real floating point

formats comply with the corresponding IEEE floating point number standards. The

FPC has built in functions to convert between the various data formats added by

the unit, for example a register move with specified operand type (.P, .B, etc).

The 68882 FPC has a significant instruction set designed to satisfy many

number-crunching situations. All instructions native to the FPC start with the

bit pattern 1111(2) to show that the instruction deals with floating point

numbers. Some instructions supported by the FPC include FCOSH, FETOX, FLOG2,

FTENTOX, FADD, FMUL and FSQRT. There are many more instructions available, but

this excerpt demonstrates the versatility of the 68882 unit.

One of the registers within the FPC is the status register. It is very

similar in function to the status register in a CPU; it is updated to show the

outcome of the most recently executed instruction. Flags within the status

register of the FPC include divide by zero, infinity, zero, overflow, underflow

and not a number. Some of the conditions signaled by the status register of the

FPC (for example divide by zero) require an exception routine to be executed, so

that the user is informed of the situation. These exceptions are stored and

executed within the host MPU, which means that the FPC can be used to control

loops and tests within user programs ? further extending the functionality of

the coprocessor.

Intel Math Coprocessor 80387 DX

In many respects, the Intel 80387 math coprocessor (MCP) is very similar

to the MC 68882. Both designs were influenced by such factors as cost, usability

and performance. There are, however, subtle differences in the designs of the

two units.

Firstly, I shall discuss the similarities between the designs followed

by differences. Like the 68882, the 80387 requires no additional hardware to be

connected to a 80386. It is a non-DMA device, having no direct access to the

address bus of the motherboard. All memory and I/O is handled by the CPU, which

upon detection of a MCP instruction passes it along to the MCP. If additional

memory reads are necessary to load operands or data, the MCP instructs the CPU

to perform these actions. This design, although reducing MCP performance when

compared to a direct connection to the address bus, significantly decreases

complexity of the MCP as no separate address decoding or error handling logic is

necessary. The connection between the CPU and the MCP instruction is via a

synchronous bus, while internal operation of the MCP can run asynchronously

(higher clockspeed). Moreover, the three functional units of the MCP can work in

parallel to increase system performance. The CPU can be transferring commands

and data to the MCP bus control logic while the MCP floating unit is executing

the current instruction. Similar to the 68882, the 80387 has a bit pattern

(11011(2)) reserved to identify instructions intended for it. Also, the

registers of the MCP are memory mapped into CPU address space, making the

internal registers of the MCP available to programmers.

Internally, the 80387 contains three distinct units: the bus control

logic (BCL), the data interface and control unit and the actual floating point

unit. The data interface and control unit directs the data to the instruction

decoder. The instruction decoder decodes the ESC instructions sent to it by the

CPU and generates controls that direct the data flow in the instruction buffer.

It also triggers the microinstruction sequencer that controls execution of each

instruction. If the ESC instruction is FINIT, FCLEX, FSTSW, FSTSW AX, or FSTCW,

the control unit executes it independently of the FPU and the sequencer. The

data interface and control unit is the unit that generates the BUSY?, PEREQ and

ERROR? signals that synchronize Intel 387 DX MCP activities with the Intel 80386

DX CPU. It also supports the FPU in all operations that it cannot perform alone

(e.g. exceptions handling, transcendental operations, etc.).

The FPU executes all instructions that involve the register stack,

including arithmetic, logical, transcendental, constant, and data transfer

instructions. The data path in the FPU is 84 bits wide (68 significant bits, 15

exponent bits, and a sign bit) which allows internal operand transfers to be

performed at very high speeds.

Interface

The MCP is connected to the MPU via a synchronous connection, while the

numeric core can operate at a different clock speed, making it asynchronous. The

following diagram will clarify this.

The following diagram shows the specific connections necessary between

the 80386 MPU and the 80387 MCP.

A typical coprocessor instruction must begin with the bit pattern

11011(2) to identify the instruction for the coprocessor. The bus control logic

of the MCP (BCL) communicates solely with the CPU using I/O bus cycles. The BCL

appears to the CPU as a special peripheral device. It is special in one

important respect: the CPU uses reserved I/O addresses to communicate with the

BCL. The BCL does not communicate directly with memory. The CPU performs all

memory access, transferring input operands from memory to the MCP and

transferring outputs from the MCP to memory.

Coprocessor Operation

When the CPU detects the arrival of a coprocessor instruction, it writes the

instruction into the coprocessors memory mapped command register in CPU space.

Having sent a command to the coprocessor, the host processor reads the reply

from the coprocessor’s signals. The response could, for example, instruct the

processor to fetch data from memory. Once the host processor has complied with

the demands from the coprocessor, it is free to continue with instruction

processing, that is, both the processor and coprocessor act concurrently. This

is why system speed can be dramatically improved upon installation of a

coprocessor.

80387 Specifics

Just like the MC 68882 floating point coprocessor, the Intel 80387 is basically

a very simple device. Like any reasonable math coprocessor, it conforms to the

IEEE standards of floating point number representations. The 80387 contains

eight 82-bit floating point data registers (including a 2-bit tag field), R0 to

R7, one 16-bit control register, one 16-bit status register and a tag word (that

contains the tag fields for the eight data registers). The MCP also indirectly

uses the 48-bit instruction and data pointer registers of the 80386 host

processor, even though these are external to the unit. Because the FPC is memory

mapped in CPU space, these registers are directly accessible to the programmer

within the register space of the host MPU. In addition to the standard word,

short and long (16, 32 and 64-bit) integer operations, the MCP supports four new

operand sizes: single precision real, double precision real, extended precision

real and packed binary coded decimal strings. All on-chip calculations take

place in extended precision format and all floating point registers hold

extended precision values. The single real and double real formats are used to

input and output operands. All three real floating point formats comply with the

corresponding IEEE floating point number standards. The MCP has built in

functions to convert between the various data formats added by the unit.

The 80387 has a significant instruction set designed to satisfy many

number-crunching situations. All instructions native to the MCP start with the

bit pattern 11011(2) to show that the instruction should be directed to the

coprocessor. Some (of the over 70) instructions supported by the MCP are FCOMP,

FDIV, FSQRT, FSINCOS, FINIT. There are many more instructions available, but

this excerpt demonstrates the versatility of the 80387 unit, which is very

similar to that of the 68882 unit.

One of the registers within the MCP is the status register. Just like

for the 68882, the status register shows the outcome of the most recently

executed instruction. Flags within the status register of the FPC include divide

by zero, infinity, zero, overflow, underflow and invalid operation. Some of the

conditions signaled by the status register of the FPC (for example divide by

zero) require an exception routine to be executed by the host MPU, so that the

user is informed of the situation. These exceptions are stored and executed

within the host MPU, which means that the MCP can again be used to control loops

and tests within user programs ? further extending the functionality of the

coprocessor. The Intel 80387 DX MCP register set can be accessed either as a

stack, with instructions operating on the top one or two stack elements, or as a

fixed register set, with instructions operating on explicitly designated

registers. The TOP field in the status word identifies the current top-of-stack

register. A “push” operation decrements TOP by one and loads a value into the

new TOP register. A “pop” operation stores the value from the current top

register and then increments TOP by one. Like the 80386 DX microprocessor stacks

in memory, the MCP register stack grows “down” toward lower-addressed

registers. Instructions may address the data registers either implicitly or

explicitly. The explicit register addressing is also relative to TOP. A notable

feature of the 80387 is the addition of a tag field of 2 bits to each of the

eight floating point registers. The tag word marks the content of each numeric

data register, as Figure 2.1 shows. Each two-bit tag represents one of the eight

numeric registers. The principal function of the tag word is to optimize the

MCP’s performance and stack handling by making it possible to distinguish

between empty and nonempty register locations. It also enables exception

handlers to check the contents of a stack location without the need to perform

complex decoding of the actual data.

Evaluation of the two Coprocessor

I started this paper thinking that the Motorola math coprocessor had to

be better in design, implementation and features than its Intel counterpart.

Throughout my research I came to realize that my opinions were based on nothing

but myths. In many respects the two coprocessors are very similar to each other,

while in other respects the coprocessors differ radically in design and

implementation. I will sum up the points I consider most important.

1. Intel uses a synchronous bus between the CPU and the MCP, while the actual

internal floating unit can run asynchronously to this. This increases complexity

of the design as synchronization logic must exist between the two processors,

but like this the floating point unit can run at a higher clock speed than the

CPU upon installation of a dedicated clock generator. 2. The (logical, not

physical) addition of tag fields to the data registers in the 80387 to signal

certain conditions of the data registers makes certain operations that support

tags much faster, as certain information does not need to be decoded as it is ?

cached? in the tag fields. 3. The 80387 can use its registers either in stack

mode or absolute addressing mode. Though some operations require stack

addressing, this feature adds a little more flexibility to the MCP (even though

the stack operations might be a legacy from the 8087 or 80287).

In most other fields, the coprocessors are equals. They have the same number of

data registers, both add their own instruction set and registers to programmers

in a transparent fashion and both support the same IEEE numeric representation

standards. Probably both coprocessors have similar processing power at equal

clockspeed as well. Even though the Motorola coprocessor seems to be superior by

name, I have to admit that the 80387 gets my vote for more flexibility and

thoughtful optimizations (tags).