Application-specific instruction set processor

Application Specific Instruction-Set Processor or (ASIP) is a methodology used in System-on-a-Chip design. It represents a comprimise between ASIC and general purpose CPU. In ASIP, the instruction set provided by the core can be configured to fit the specific application. This "configurability" of the core provides a tradeoff between flexibility and performance. Usually, the core is divided into two parts: static logic which defines a minimum ISA and configurable logic which can be used to design new instructions. The configurable logic can be programmed either in the "field" in a similar fashion to FPGA or during the chip sythesis.

References

• Cong, J. and Fan, Y. and Han, G. and Zhang, Z. (2004). "Application-specific instruction generation for configurable processor architectures". International Symposium on Field Programmable Gate Arrays. ACM Press New York, NY, USA: 183--189.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Wirthlin, M.J. and Hutchings, B.L. (1995). "A Dynamic Instruction Set Computer". IEEE Symposium on FPGAs for Custom Computing Machines. IEEE Computer Society Press: 99--107.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)