A meta-assembler for highly-parallel microprogrammable systems

Abstract

This paper describes a software system whose input is a description of a highly parallel (horizontally) microprogrammable machine as reflected in the organization of the machine's “word” and a set of user-specified statement “patterns” defining the microprogramming language. Programs in the user-defined language are assembled into relocatable segments, which are linked together by a loader to form object modules. This design has proved effective in an environment where a group of engineers and programmers were involved in the programming of several architecturally different components for the emulation of the IBM System/370 on the NANODATA QMX.