M/A deal .....

Part VI: Patriot Scientific ShBoom: from Forth to Java (April 1996) . .

An innovative stack-oriented processor, the 32 bit ShBoom PSC1000 was originally meant for high speed embedded Forth applications (like the M17 and others), but Patriot Scientific has decided to position it as a Java processor as well - though it doesn't directly execute Java bytcodes, ShBoom instructions are also byte length, and Java bytecodes can be translated very closely to the native ShBoom instruction set. In addition, unlike pure stack-based machines, the ShBoom has several general registers.

At 100MHz, the microprocessing unit (MPU) executes about one instruction per cycle, without normal instruction/data caches. Byte instructions are loaded in groups of four (32 bits), and executed sequentially. The problem of loading constants is handled in a unique way. The 68000 and PDP-11 could load a constant stored in program memory following the current instruction, and the Hitachi SH uses a similar PC-relative mode to load constants. Processors like the Mips R3000 load half a constant at a time using two instructions. Transputers always contain 4 bits of data and 4 bits of op code in each byte instruction.

The ShBoom loads single bytes of data from the rightmost bytes of the current instruction group, and words from program memory following the current group. For example, a load byte instruction could be in position one, two or three from the left, the data would always be in the fourth (rightmost) byte. Four consecutive load word instructions would be grouped together, and the constants taken fromthe four 32 bit words following the group. This ensures data alignment without extra circuitry (but may get in the way in the future, such as for 64 bit versions).

There are sixteen 32 bit global registers (g0 to g15), a sixteen register local stack (r0 to r14 can be used as a stack frame (R15 is not user visible), or as a Forth return stack), and an eighteen element operand stack (s0 to s17, accessed only by data stack operations) - the stacks automatically spill and refill to and from memory, s0 and r0 can also be used as index registers, g0 is used for multiply and divide instructions. There's also an extra index register x, a loop counter ct, and a mode register (like a CC or PSW register).

The CPU also contains an I/O coprocessor on chip for simultanious I/O (much more advanced than the I/O buffer register of the M17, but the same idea), which communicates with the MPU via the global data registers. It's a simple, independent unit which executes small data transfer programs until I/O is complete. There are also a programmable memory interface, 8 channel DMA controller, and interrupt controller.

The ShBoom architecture is a very innovative and elegant attempt at combining stack and register oriented architectures, with emphasis on the stack operation simplicity. It would give Java a good home.