On the Minimization of Wordwidth in the Control Memory of a Microprogrammed Digital Computer

This paper describes a new method for reducing the wordwidth in the control memory of a microprogrammed digital computer. The method requires the computation of maximal compatibility classes (MCC's) of only a subset of subcommands unlike the existing methods in which MCCs of the entire set of subcommands are used. An algorithm has been given to obtain a near minimal solution by appropriate grouping of the MCC's. The necessary modification of the algorithm has also been presented to deal with large size microprograms.