Bit Slice Processors Components Hardware

Bit slice processors are modules used to build up larger processors. A larger processor of word size X is built up of several smaller modules, ALUs (Arithmetic and Logic Units), of word size usually X/16, X/8, X/4, or X/2; i.e., of 1, 2, 4 or 8 bits. Due to microlithography advances, this is now mostly obsolete technically, and of historical interest. Most bit slicing occurred from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, when integrated circuit chips were too small to hold all of the circuitry needed for a full larger processor (usually 16- to 32-bits), during the time of medium scale integration (MSI), and early large scale integration (LSI).

• Top/Computers/Hardware/Components/Processors/VLIW
• Top/Computers/Hardware/Components/Processors/Multiprocessors

• Exploiting Bit–slice Inactivities for Reducing Energy Requirements of Superscalar Processors - Simulating SPEC 95 execution benchmarks on detailed register–level, cycle-by-cycle superscalar processors CPU shows how to use lack of data stream entropy processors to cut power use.[PDF]
• Bit Slicing - Growing article, with links to many related topics. bit slice [Wikipedia]
• AMD 2901 Bit-Slice Processor Family - Information, photos, identification, links to pinouts, support and second-source chips. processors [CPU-World]
• The Microprocessor Decentralized: A Bit-Slice Processor, the 2901 - Description, photo of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 1975 chip. [The Chip Collection, State of the Art, Smithsonian Institution]

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