METHOD FOR USING READ-ONLY MEMORY TO GENERATE CONTROLS FOR MICROPROCESSOR

A circuit for generating control signals used in a microprocessor has a storage array, such as a read-only memory (ROM) array, which contains a plurality of predefined logic patterns. An entry of the ROM array is selected, such as by the use of an address decoder, to choose a specific pattern, and the specific pattern is then modified based on a dynamic signal to generate an output control signal. The microprocessor may further predecode a base instruction using operation and operand source bits to yield a predecoded instruction having an address field whose value corresponds to the specific pattern. The dynamic signal can be based on whether an operand should be forwarded from a microprocessor component, and the specific pattern is then equivalent to a value for control signals required to execute an instruction when assuming that the operand should not be forwarded. Special control states can also be implemented, such as stall, halt, or scan data, through the use of particular code points in the ROM.