FP11-E Floating Point Processor

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The FP11-E Floating Point Processor is the optional hardware floating point unit for the KD11-K CPU of the PDP-11/60. The KD11-K provided the full FP11 floating point using microcode; the FP11-E was an option which provided considerably improved floating point performance.

It was a 4 hex board co-processor:

  • Floating Point Next Micro-Address (FNUA - M7878)
  • Floating Point Exponent (FLTEXP - M7879)
  • Multiplying Network (MULNET - M7880)
  • Floating Point ALU (FALU - M7881)

which mounted in slots 8-11 of the CPU's backplane. The main CPU can detect the presence of the FP11-E, and, if present, uses it to perform any floating point instructions found in the program.

Electrically, it connected directly to the CPU and is controlled by it; unidirectional data buses are provided to move information (including instructions) from the CPU to the FPP, and vice versa.

The FP11-E has its own microcode, 88 bits wide, to control its operation, and interaction with the main CPU.

Further reading

  • FP11-E floating-point processor technical manual (EK-FP11E-TM-001)

External links

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