Hardwired and Microprogrammed Control Unit (original) (raw)

Hardwired and Micro-programmed Control Unit

Last Updated : 9 Sep, 2025

The control unit is the part of the CPU responsible for directing operations. It manages the flow of instructions and data within the processor, ensuring that tasks are carried out in the correct order. There are two main types: hardwired and microprogrammed.

Hardwired units: Fast but less flexible (because they rely on fixed circuits).
Microprogrammed units: Flexible but slower (because they use microcode stored in memory).

The control hardware can be viewed as a state machine that changes from one state to another in every clock cycle, depending on the contents of the instruction register, the condition codes, and the external inputs. The outputs of the state machine are the control signals. The sequence of the operation carried out by this machine is determined by the wiring of the logic elements and hence is named “hardwired”.

Fixed logic circuits that correspond directly to the Boolean expressions are used to generate the control signals.
Hardwired control is faster than microprogrammed control.
A controller that uses this approach can operate at high speed.
RISC architecture is based on the hardwired control unit

**Micro-programmed Control Unit

The control signals associated with operations are stored in special memory units inaccessible by the programmer as Control Words.
Control signals are generated by a program that is similar to machine language programs.
The micro-programmed control unit is slower in speed because of the time it takes to fetch microinstructions from the control memory.

**Some Important Terms

**Control Word: A control word is a word whose individual bits represent various control signals.
**Micro-routine: A sequence of control words corresponding to the control sequence of a machine instruction constitutes the micro-routine for that instruction.
**Micro-instruction: Individual control words in this micro-routine are referred to as microinstructions.
**Micro-program: A sequence of micro-instructions is called a micro-program, which is stored in a ROM or RAM called a Control Memory (CM).
**Control Store: the micro-routines for all instructions in the instruction set of a computer are stored in a special memory called the Control Store.

**Types of Micro-programmed Control Unit

Based on the type of Control Word stored in the Control Memory (CM), it is classified into two types :

**1. Horizontal Micro-programmed Control Unit :
The control signals are represented in the decoded binary format that is 1 bit/CS. Example: If 53 Control signals are present in the processor then 53 bits are required. More than 1 control signal can be enabled at a time.

It supports longer control words.
It is used in parallel processing applications.
It allows a higher degree of parallelism. If degree is n, n CS is enabled at a time.
It requires no additional hardware(decoders). It means it is faster than Vertical Microprogrammed.
It is more flexible than vertical microprogrammed

**2. Vertical Micro-programmed Control Unit :
The control signals are represented in the encoded binary format. For N control signals- Log2(N) bits are required.

It supports shorter control words.
It supports easy implementation of new control signals therefore it is more flexible.
It allows a low degree of parallelism i.e., the degree of parallelism is either 0 or 1.
Requires additional hardware (decoders) to generate control signals, it implies it is slower than horizontal microprogrammed.
It is less flexible than horizontal but more flexible than that of a hardwired control unit.

**Note: Types of Control Unit in descending order of speed :

**Hardwired control unit > Horizontal microprogrammed CU > Vertical microprogrammed CU

**GATE CS Corner Questions
Practicing the following questions will help you test your knowledge. All questions have been asked in GATE in previous years or in GATE Mock Tests. It is highly recommended that you practice them.