1-bit architecture

Under 1-bit architecture is meant in the computerized systems , which in one stroke only 1 bit process. An example of a true 1-bit architecture that has actually been produced and marketed as a CPU is Motorola's MC14500 Industrial Control Unit . There are also various academic design studies for 1-bit architectures, and the logical model can be found in the programming, which is compiled on various target hardware.

Typical representatives of the 1-bit architecture are the so-called programmable logic controllers (PLC). The designation is primarily indicative of the programming language used on the system, for example instruction list (STL), but generally says nothing about the underlying processor platform. This can differ significantly from 1 bit due to parallelization, optimization and conversion into hardware for solving the PLC program task. For example, an STL program with 1-bit logic can be translated into machine code for a 32-bit processor ( 32-bit architecture ) with an STL compiler .

Typical program for a 1-bit architecture:

• load digital input 1 into the 1-bit register
• ( OR -) link the value in the 1-bit register with input 2, the result remains in the register
• write the value in the 1-bit register to output 1

The limitation of the programming model to 1 bit allows a control task to be implemented in a program with the smallest possible number of process elements required. In the case of products with low quantities, a universal processor from another area will be used (e.g. from the 4-bit or 8-bit architecture ); in the case of high quantities, the implementation as a special chip ( application-specific integrated circuit ) is possible in which every program step is expressed individually as a 1-bit oriented transistor group with conductor tracks. The FPGAs , which can be produced more cheaply, enable programs written in high-level language to be converted into a configuration file with which the 1-bit-wide oriented functional elements are dynamically interconnected on these chips, which then correspond to hard-wired program logic during operation.

1-bit processors were also used in the Connection Machine line of supercomputers , but they were connected en masse in parallel.

See also

• Turing machine

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Motorola : MC14500B Industrial Control Unit. Semiconductor Technical Data, Rev. 3 . Motorola , no location 1995

Web links

• WDR 1-bit computer manuals and emulators for PC and C64
• Motorola 14500B and DS14500A ICU Demonstration System Manual
• One-bit computing at 60 Hz
• The Golem - One bit to rule them all