The address generation unit (AGU), sometimes also called address computation unit (ACU), is an

execution unit In computer engineering, an execution unit (E-unit or EU) is a part of a processing unit that performs the operations and calculations forwarded from the instruction unit. It may have its own internal control sequence unit (not to be confused w ...

inside

central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary Processor (computing), processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes Instruction (computing), instructions ...

s (CPUs) that calculates addresses used by the CPU to access

main memory Computer data storage or digital data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers. The central processin ...

. By having address calculations handled by separate circuitry that operates in parallel with the rest of the CPU, the number of

CPU cycle The instruction cycle (also known as the fetch–decode–execute cycle, or simply the fetch–execute cycle) is the cycle that the central processing unit (CPU) follows from boot-up until the computer has shut down in order to process instructions ...

s required for executing various

machine instruction In computer programming, machine code is computer code consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). For conventional binary computers, machine code is the binaryOn nonbi ...

s can be reduced, bringing performance improvements. While performing various operations, CPUs need to calculate memory addresses required for fetching data from the memory; for example, in-memory positions of array elements must be calculated before the CPU can fetch the data from actual memory locations. Those address-generation calculations involve different integer arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction,

modulo operation In computing and mathematics, the modulo operation returns the remainder or signed remainder of a Division (mathematics), division, after one number is divided by another, the latter being called the ''modular arithmetic, modulus'' of the operatio ...

s, or

bit shift In computer programming, a bitwise operation operates on a bit string, a bit array or a binary numeral (considered as a bit string) at the level of its individual bits. It is a fast and simple action, basic to the higher-level arithmetic opera ...

s. Often, calculating a memory address involves more than one general-purpose machine instruction, which do not necessarily decode and execute quickly. By incorporating an AGU into a CPU design, together with introducing specialized instructions that use the AGU, various address-generation calculations can be offloaded from the rest of the CPU, and can often be executed quickly in a single CPU cycle. Capabilities of an AGU depend on a particular CPU and its

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

. Thus, some AGUs implement and expose more address-calculation operations, while some also include more advanced specialized instructions that can operate on multiple

operand In mathematics, an operand is the object of a mathematical operation, i.e., it is the object or quantity that is operated on. Unknown operands in equalities of expressions can be found by equation solving. Example The following arithmetic expres ...

s at a time. Furthermore, some CPU architectures include multiple AGUs so more than one address-calculation operation can be executed simultaneously, bringing further performance improvements by capitalizing on the

superscalar A superscalar processor (or multiple-issue processor) is a CPU that implements a form of parallelism called instruction-level parallelism within a single processor. In contrast to a scalar processor, which can execute at most one single in ...

nature of advanced CPU designs. For example,

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

incorporates multiple AGUs into its

Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge is the List of Intel codenames, codename for Intel's 32 nm process, 32 nm microarchitecture used in the second generation of the Intel Core, Intel Core processors (Intel Core i7, Core i7, Intel Core i5, i5, Intel Core i3, i3). The Sa ...

and Haswell

microarchitecture In electronics, computer science and computer engineering, microarchitecture, also called computer organization and sometimes abbreviated as μarch or uarch, is the way a given instruction set architecture (ISA) is implemented in a particular ...

s, which increase bandwidth of the CPU memory subsystem by allowing multiple memory-access instructions to be executed in parallel.

References

External links

Address generation unit in the Motorola DSP56K family
June 2003, Motorola
Address generation unit in DSP applications
September 2013, by Andreas Ehliar
Computer Science from the Bottom Up, Chapter 3. Computer Architecture
September 2013, by Ian Wienand {{Basic computer components Central processing unit Instruction processing

See also

References

External links