LALU: Lookup Arithmetic Logic Unit

MTM Scientific, Inc

1 MB ROM for Arithmetic Logic Unit

Figure 1: 8 MB EPROM with 20 Address Lines for use as LALU


This page describes the design and development of LALU: Lookup Arithmetic Logic Unit. The LALU functions as the ALU for a simple digital computer design in development. Traditionally an ALU is included in the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of a computer. Stand alone ALUs are also available, such as the venerable 74LS181. This page describes using an 8 MB EPROM (M27C801: Organized as 1MB x 8 Bits) to perform ALU functions on two 8-bit input registers "A" and "B". The 8-bit output appears on IC pins Q7-Q0, which can then be registered back into A.

Here are the assignments for the Accumulator "A", Register "B"  and ALU Output (Registered into "A" by way of "C").  See diagram below.

B Register Inputs: A7, A6, A5, A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 (LSB)
A Register Inputs: A15, A14, A13, A12, A11, A10, A9, A8 (LSB)
ALU Output: Q7, Q6, Q5, Q4, Q3, Q2, Q1, Q0 (LSB)
LALU Function Select Inputs:  A19, A18, A17, A16 (LSB)

The function to be performed by the LALU is chosen by using a 4 bit wide control nibble. A surprising variety of functions can be performed with this simple architecture. Here is our assignment for the 16 functions for LALU.

Control        Name          Description (Result always sent to A)
0000           AND           Logical AND of A and B
0001            OR              Logical OR of A and B
0010            NOT           Logical NOT of A
0011            INC            Increment A by 1
0100            DEC           Decrement A by 1
0101            RLS            Right Logical Shift
0110            ADD           Addition (A+B)
0111            SUB            Subtraction (A-B)
1000            A>B            Set Flag IF A>B
1001            A=B            Set Flag IF A=B
1010            A<B            Set Flag IF A<B
1011            MBA            Move B to A
1100            MUL            Multiply (A*B)
1101            A=0             Set Flag IF A=0
1110            OVF            Set Flag IF A+B>255
1111            LLS            Left Logical Shift

The LALU output is sent to holding Register C, and from there forwarded to "A" (during an ALU instruction).  The flag functions of LALU set a binary True/False output (1 or 0) in the LSB which is available for controlling conditional jumps, or the flag can be registered into "A". The flag for addition overflow is especially useful for 16 bit addition. The Flags can be used for 4 different conditional branches: A>B, A=B, A<B, A=0 and A+B>255. The A=0 flag is also very useful because the state does not depend on the contents of Register B.

The list of functions chosen here for the LALU is basic. LALU functions could include trigonometric quantities (sine, cosine, etc), coefficients for calculations (FFT, infinite series, etc), other logical functions (NAND, XOR, etc) as well as other flags, bit shifts, rotates and support for complement math. (Presently we use unsigned integer math.)

Here is a link to an early version of the HEX file we have defined above. This file is suitable for burning into an EPROM such as the M27C801:  LALU.HEX

The HEX file for burning the EPROM is created using an Excel spreadsheet and hex file editor. We call this software the "Composer". The Excel spreedsheet has 1,048,576 rows... corresponding to the 1,048,576 memory locations in the EPROM. Coincidentally, this was the largest number of rows possible in a Microsoft Excel 2007 spreadsheet. The actual HEX file data appears in column D. The table is generated by using conditional logic formulas in the cells of column C. The A and B columns are inputs to the calculation. (Representing registers A and B) The large size of the spreadsheet file makes it difficult to navigate. Hyperlink shortcuts were added to facilitate navigation (See the hot links on the far righthand side of the worksheet).

Excel Spreadsheet for Composing the LALU

Figure 2: Excel Hex File composer for the LALU


A shortcoming of this LALU implementation is the 8-bit nature of register inputs A and B, as well as the output result. A desirable feature for the LALU would be operation as a bit-slice component.  For example, in the case of addition this would require routing an overflow signal to the next LALU bit slice. Unfortunately, this would require dedicating a control line address for the purpose. Consequently, the 4 address lines would be reduced to 3, and instead of 16 functions the LALU would have 8.  Larger programmable ROM's are available, although they present challenges in terms of cost, programming hardware and hex file creation.

Another real world shortcoming of the LALU is the speed of calcuation. The M27C801 chosen here has an access time of 45ns. Many EPROMs have slower access times.  Another shortcoming is that a single-cell entry mistake in the 1 million plus Excel spreadsheet would be difficult to detect in practice.

A PCB was designed to demonstrate the operation of LALU. The 4 bit OPCODE and 8 bit registers "A" and "B" are set using DIP switches. In the photo example the 4 bit OPCODE is set to "0000" which is the logical AND operation. Examining the registers, we see the LSB of both "A" and "B" are set high. Consequently, the AND operation result sets the LSB of the result high, as indicated by the LED. We have found this simple demonstration board very useful when writing code and are unable to remember the specific behavior of an ALU function.

LALU in Operation 


An 8-Bit computer to use the LALU Lookup Arithmetic Logic Unit was designed and constructed.  Here is a diagram of the LALU Computer Architecture. This computer design has many similarities to the TTL-Retro Computer we designed previously. The data and instruction bus width is 8 bits. The shared memory holds both data and instructions.  The single byte is structured as follows: The top nibble is the instruction, and the bottom nibble is 4 bits of microcode. Most of the hardware control signals are for loading or enabling registers with respect to the bus. The controller for this version was hard-wired using 'AND' and 'OR' 74LS series IC's. The memory is a combination of ROM and SRAM. Program code is placed in the ROM. Note that LALU is capable of generating flags, which can be used to perform conditional jumps.

Architecture of the LALU Computer

With 4 bits in the top nibble, the LALU computer can have 16 instructions using a 4-16 decode. Our prototype LALU computer starts with 8 instructions using a 3-8 decode. The instructions are:

0: NOP: No Operation
1: LDA: Load A from Memory
2: STA: Store A to Memory
3: MAB: Move Register A to Register B
4: ALU: Perform ALU operation (16 Microcoded Instructions)
5: JMP: Jump (Unconditional)
6: JIF: Jump (Conditional on Flag)
7: DTA: Direct to A (Immediate Load)

In the case of reading or writing to Memory (LDA and STA), the next byte of the ROM program contains the address. In the case of a direct load of A (DTA), the next byte of the ROM contains the data to load. In the case of Jumps (JMP and JIF), the next byte of the ROM contains the destination address (which must point to code!).

Here is a listing of the hardware signals generated by the Controller:
IP: Increment Program Counter
LP: Load Increment Counter (Jumps)
EP: Enable Program Counter on Bus
LM: Load Memory Address Register
R: Put Memory Contents on Bus (Pointer to memory is the Address Register)
W: Put Bus Contents into Memory (Pointer to memory is the Address Register)
EA: Enable A Register on the Bus
LA: Load A Register from the Bus
EB: Enable B Register on the Bus
LB: Load B Register from the Bus
EC: Enable C Register on the Bus
LC: Load C Register from LALU
LI: Load Instruction Register from the Bus
EI: Enable Instruction Register on the Bus

Not shown in the LALU Computer architecture drawing are a system clock and a ring counter. The system clock allows optional choices for the clocking: A manual ON-OFF toggle switch, a 555 timer running at ~30HZ and a 1 MHZ crystal oscillator.  The ring counter generates 6 timing ticks from the system clock, for selective logical operation of hardware by the controller. Any desired instruction can be created using a glue-logic combination of ring counter ticks, system clock ticks, and decoded instruction signals. Four bits of microcode (lower nibble) are available to control the configuration of system hardware, such as the LALU.

The most difficult part of the PCB design of the LALU computer has been the hard-wired controller. Our long range plan is to replace the hard-wired controller with a Lookup Controller. (See below!)

The PCB boards for this project were designed, purchased and assembled. The 1st prototype had multiple wiring and logic errors. These were subsequently fixed using point-to-point wiring. We eventually were able to get the LALU Computer functional. This version of LALU has sinced been updated to a Revision 2. Here is a photo of the LALU Computer Prototype working on the test bench:

LALU Computer Working Prototype

PROJECT UPDATE (July 31, 2022):

We have updated the LALU computer to use a 16 bit address bus, while retaining the original 8 bit data bus. Here is an architecture layout of the 16 bit version of LALU.  With a 16 bit address bus the LALU computer is capable of direct read and write to 64K of memory.  We have also added hardware control signals for doing bus input and output. Bus control is used for devices such as a keyboard, LCD display and hardware stacks. This design has been built and operated as a prototype.  This design uses both a Lookup Controller as well as a Lookup ALU.

16 Bit version of LALU

Here is a view of the Printed Circuit Boards comprising the 16 bit LALU computer. The Lookup Controller card is compact, with minimal parts count. We found it challenging to create the custom ROM to do the controller lookups... A problem we eventually solved by creating a very large EXCEL spreadsheet for the purpose.

There is a additional information about the LALU Computer at the AnyCPU Forum. Here is a link to the LALU PROJECT at AnyCPU.


Printed Circuit Boards for 16 Bit LALU Computer


The Assembly Language for LALU is relatively simple. Here is a listing of the instructions:

LALU Assembly Language

LALU Assembly Language

LALU Assembly Language

The LALU computer has 3 hardware stacks. They are the Data Stack, Return Stack and Keyboard Stack. The LALU computer uses an LCD Display Module to display text to the user.  Input to the LALU computer is provided by a standard PS/2 keyboard routed through a PIC Microcontroller which provides 8-bit parallel bus output. This keyboard and card combination was created to emulate an APPLE IIE keyboard. (As used on our TTL-Retro Project.)  Here is a photo of these various cards.

Input and Output Cards for LALU Computer

We are presently in the process of writing a higher level language for LALU using the Assembly Language as the first layer of code. The new language is called "LANG", and it is an interpretive language with a simple parser. LANG has some similarities to both Forth and Basic. LANG is a stack based language. In the early days of computing it was not uncommon to write your own homebrew languages for a personal computer. Here is a link to an article in Kilobaud Microcomputing Magazine about writing your own Forth Interpreter. (Skip to page 76 in the magazine.) Here is the language specification for LANG:

LANG Language Specification

LANG Language Specification

LANG Language Specification

The LALU computer's assembly language was used to created a higher-level language called LANG. The LANG language is an interpretive language with similarities to BASIC and FORTH. In the early days of computing hobbyists were keen on comparing the performance of their computers. One method of comparison was to run a standard computing problem, referred to as a benchmark. The length of time to complete the computer calculation was a measure of performance. One common computer benchmark was the identification of all prime numbers up to 1000. This benchmark is sometimes referred to as the "Sieve of Eratosthenes". Here is a screenshot from the June, 1980 issue of Interface Age magazine which lists the BASIC code, and reports the performance for common computers of the day.

Interface Age 1980 Prime Number Benchmark

We wrote a program in the LANG language to run the benchmark calculation on the LALU computer. (A small difference in our benchmark program is that we do not print the results.) Our first run of the prime number benchmark on the LALU computer was 360 seconds.  From there we began improving the LANG language with faster routines and more efficient line loading and parsing. At present our fastest time running the benchmark is 110 seconds. This is encouraging for an 8 bit machine operating at 1 MHZ.

Here is a link to a Zip file containing the schematics for the LALU Computer as of December, 2022: LALU Schematics
Here is a link to a Zip file containing the PCB Gerber files for LALU Computer as of December, 2022: LALU Gerbers

Here is a link to a Zip file containing the software and ROM code files as of December, 2022: Code Files

Here is a link at the Vintage Computer Forum about some of the software coding associated with LALU, and a discussion of predication. Vintage Computer Forum.

UPDATE: LALU SBC (Single Board Computer)

In the Spring of 2024 the LALU computer design was transferred to SBC configuration (Single Board Computer). To minimize problems the existing multicard PCB designs were combined onto a single PCB plane. The attached photo shows the general layout. Another attached photo shows the PCB with components populated.

LALU SBC Design Layout

LALU SBC with components

The LALU SBC V1 computer was found to have some minor layout issues. Consequently a LALU SBC V2 was ultimately created. The SBC version of LALU is intended for headless operation, with serial input and output at 4800 baud, N-8-1. The complete set of LALU assembly language opcodes is available. It was by using the assembly language opcodes and homebrew assembler (WWA) that an interpreted language was created called LANG.  The LANG language has characteristics of both Forth and Basic and is surprisingly fast.

Here is a link to a zip file containing the latest files for the SBC version:  

LALU SBC

There are some interesting webpages to be found on the topic of lookup ROMs. Here is an article about using ROM's for combinational logic.

http://39k.ca/using-roms-as-combinational-logic/

Here is a fantastic article from Garth Wilson about using ROM's for lookup tables.

http://wilsonminesco.com/16bitMathTables/

Bitwise operations are not native to Excel 2007. Here is a description of how to add them using Visual Basic. (These were needed for creating the Lookup ALU file for burning to ROM.)

https://stackpointer.io/software/bitwise-operations-excel-not-and-or-xor/281/