DESIGN OF A MICROPROGRAMMED MULTI-TASKING KERNEL FOR THE Z-80 MICROPROCESSOR

Abstract

Silicon Software, an increasingly popular term, refers to the solid-state realization of standard pro-gramo-It is the mid point in the migration of micro-processor software into micro code. It therefore, exhibits the characteristics of both hardware and software. Like software, it must be reconfigurable if it is to endure the fast changing world of microprocessor technology and like hardware it must use this technology to advantage, to reduce the overall cost and provide improved system performance. The motivation for the present work was to design such an efficient, versatile and economical microprogrammed real time multitasking Kernel for the Z-80 microprocessor, in order to make the system more amenable to users. The Kernel layer so designed includes modules which CREATE, DELETE (or DESTROY), DELAY, SCHEDULE,&DISPATCH multiple processes along with facilitiess for INTERRUPT HANDLING, and SERVICES. The technique chosen for scheduling is priority based pre-emption. A detailed explanation of the fully debugged Kernel routines and its data structures is given in this thesis.