CONTROL UNIT
Ms. Sangeetha J
Asst. Professor
St. Albert’s College (Autonomous)
CPU -Components
CONTROL
UNIT
ALU REGISTERS
Control Unit
• Control Unit is the part of the computer’s central processing unit (CPU), which directs
the operation of the processor.
• It is the responsibility of the Control Unit to tell the computer’s memory, arithmetic/logic
unit and input and output devices how to respond to the instructions that have been sent
to the processor.
• It fetches internal instructions of the programs from the main memory to the processor
instruction register, and based on this register contents, the control unit generates a
control signal that supervises the execution of these instructions.
Control Unit
•A control unit works by receiving input information to which it converts into
control signals, which are then sent to the central processor.
• The computer’s processor then tells the attached hardware what operations to
perform.
• The functions that a control unit performs are dependent on the type of CPU
because the architecture of CPU varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Functions of Control Unit
• It coordinates the sequence of data movements into, out of, and between a processor’s sub-units.
• It interprets instructions.
• It controls data flow inside the processor.
• It controls many execution units (i.e. ALU, data buffers and registers) contained within a CPU.
• It also handles multiple tasks, such as fetching, decoding, execution handling and storing
results.
Types of Control Unit
• There are two types of control units
• Hardwired control unit
• Micro programmable control unit.
Hardwired Control Unit
• In the Hardwired control unit, the control signals that are important for
instruction execution control are generated by specially designed
hardware logical circuits, in which we can not modify the signal
generation method without physical change of the circuit structure.
• The hardwired organization, the control logic is implemented with gates,
flip-flops, decoders, and other digital circuits.
• It has the advantage that it can be optimized to produce a fast mode of
operation.
Microprogrammed Control Unit
• In the microprogrammed organization, the control information is
generated through programs.
• In the microprogrammed organization, the control information is stored
in a control memory.
• The control memory is programmed to initiate the required sequence of
microoperations
• In the microprogrammed control, any required changes or modifications
can be done by updating the microprogram in control memory.
Block diagram of Control Unit
Control Unit
• The control Unit consists of
•2 Decoders
•A sequence counter
• Number of control logic gates
Control Unit
• An instruction read from memory is placed in the instruction register (IR)
• The instruction register is divided into three parts:
•1 bit
• Operation code
• Bits 0 through 11.
• The operation code in bits 12 through 14 are decoded with a 3 x 8 decoder.
• The eight outputs of the decoder are designated by the symbols D0 through D7.
• Bit 15 of the instruction is transferred to a flip-flop designated by the symbol I
Control Unit
• Bits 0 through 11 are applied to the control logic gates.
• The 4-bit sequence counter can count in binary from 0 through 15.
• The outputs of the counter are decoded into 16 timing signals T0 through T15.
• The sequence counter SC can be incremented or cleared synchronously.
• The counter is incremented to provide the sequence of timing signals out of the 4 x 16
decoder
• Once in a while, the counter is cleared to 0, causing the next active timing signal to be
T0.
Control Unit
The timing diagram shows
the time relationship of the
control signals.
The control signals are generated
in the control unit and
provide control inputs for the
multiplexers in the common
bus, control inputs in processor
registers, and microoperations for the
accumulator.
