mips project

Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages
MIPS project

   <processor> (MIPS) A project at {Stanford University} intended
   to simplify processor design by eliminating hardware
   {interlocks} between the five {pipeline} stages.  This means
   that only single execution cycle instructions can access the
   thirty two 32-bit general {registers}, so that the {compiler}
   can schedule them to avoid conflicts.  This also means that
   LOAD/STORE and branch instructions have a one-cycle delay to
   account for.  However, because of the importance of multiply
   and divide instructions, a special HI/LO pair of
   multiply/divide registers exist which do have hardware
   interlocks, since these take several cycles to execute and
   complicate {instruction scheduling}.

   The project eventually lead to the commercial {MIPS R2000}
   processor.

   (1995-02-09)