What is a control store?


The control store is similar to the ROM in that the control store holds information that cannot be changed or erased. The control store contains the set of micro-instructions that are used to execute all of the programs run on that computer. The control store is referenced by the MPC, the micro-program counter, a device similar to a register. The MPC stores the location of the microinstruction that is currently being executed. The MPC is regulated by the MMUX, a device that determines if the MPC should be incremented or if it should jump to an entirely new instruction. A jump would only occur if certain conditions were met, usually dependent on the ALU's output.


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