hardware control language

Computer Systems A Programmer's Perspective Second Edition

We then provide some background on digital hardware design. We describe

the basic building blocks used in a processor and how they are connected together

and operated. This presentation builds on our discussion of Boolean algebra and

bit-level operations from Chapter 2. We also introduce a simple language, HCL

(for “Hardware Control Language”), to describe the control portions of hardware

systems. We will later use this language to describe our processor designs. Even if

you already have some background in logic design, read this section to understand

our particular notation.