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A typical schematic symbol for an ALU: A & B are the data (registers); R is
the output; F is the Operand (instruction) from the Control Unit; D is an
output status
Contents
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• 1 Early development
• 2 Numerical systems
• 3 Practical overview
o 3.1 Simple operations
o 3.2 Complex operations
o 3.3 Inputs and outputs
o 3.4 ALUs vs. FPUs
• 4 See also
• 5 Notes
• 6 References
• 7 External links
ALUs for each one of these numeric systems had different designs, and that
influenced the current preference for two's complement, as this is the
representation that makes it easier for the ALUs to calculate additions and
subtractions.[citation needed]
A simple 2-bit ALU that does XOR, AND, OR, and addition (click the
image for a further explanation)
Powerful processors like the Intel Core and AMD64 implement option #1
for several simple operations, #2 for the most common complex operations
and #3 for the extremely complex operations. That is possible by the ability
of building very complex ALUs in these processors.
The inputs to the ALU are the data to be operated on (called operands) and a
code from the control unit indicating which operation to perform. Its output
is the result of the computation.
In many designs the ALU also takes or generates as inputs or outputs a set of
condition codes from or to a status register. These codes are used to indicate
cases such as carry-in or carry-out, overflow, divide-by-zero, etc.[4]