Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!sgi!bron@bronze.wpd.sgi.com From: bron@bronze.wpd.sgi.com (Bron Campbell Nelson) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Multi-Ported Register File Summary: How many ports? Message-ID: <56847@sgi.sgi.com> Date: 14 Apr 90 22:45:39 GMT References: <34153@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <11426@june.cs.washington.edu> Sender: bron@bronze.wpd.sgi.com Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA Lines: 16 In article <11426@june.cs.washington.edu>, upton@badger.cs.washington.edu (Michael Upton) writes: > > In reguards to the design of multiported register files: One thing I've wondered .. how much extra chip area does it take to build a multi-port register file? The late lamented MultiFlow VLIW machine, and the new crop of "super-scalar" chips that issue several instructions per clock must be able to read and write large numbers of registers simultaneously (something on the order or 10 reads and 5 writes per clock). How much extra hardware is needed to do this? How many more levels of logic are required over the "2 read 1 write" case? -- Bron Campbell Nelson bron@sgi.com or possibly ..!ames!sgi!bron These statements are my own, not those of Silicon Graphics.