Transport triggered architecture

A Transport triggered architecture (TTA) is a one instruction set computer which only moves data between various function units. It is a very minimal, simple and flexible type of architecture.

A typical TTA consists of one or more transport buses, with various units attached to these buses. Each instruction configures the source and destination, i.e. moves data over the buses. Certain data movements may trigger an attached unit to perform an action, hence transport triggered.

TTAs expose a lot of microarchitectural details which are otherwise abstracted in more typical architectures. Due to this, (assembly) code written for a specific TTA tends to be non-portable.

An example of a TTA. Note that many more configurations are possible, including with multiple transport buses.