Designing the processor control
• We don't want to design the control circuit directly as logic!
– Control needs to be changed frequently during a system design (and this is more like developing,
testing, and debugging software)
• We use a systematic approach
– Design a control algorithm
– From the algorithm, synthesise a control circuit
• The control circuit goes through a sequence of states, so the control algorithm is a higher-level notation
for describing that sequence of states
– What can we do in a state?
• Just assert a set of control signals!