this invention provides the desired timing protection during execution by inserting an instruction designating a dummy cycle at the position in the program requiring timing protection . the number of dummy cycles are controlled by the instruction . the embodiment indicated below is concerned with a microprogrammed processor using pipeline control . first , the basic operation of a micro - instruction in the pipeline control system will be explained . fig1 illustrates the pipeline mechanism and the execution flow of micro - instructions . in this figure , block 1 is a central memory address register csa and the op code of a machine instruction is input to it as the address of control memory cs 2 in which micro - programs are stored . blocks 3 to 8 are tag registers of successive stages of a pipeline , corresponding to phase - a to phase - f of the execution flow indicated respectively to phase - a - tag 3 to phase - f - tag 8 . the control bit of a micro - instruction read from the control memory cs 2 in the d cycle described later is synchronized with the pipeline and shifted from phase - a - tag 3 to phase - f - tag 8 . the valid / invalid status of a tag is indicated by the valid flag ( v ). here , tag indicates the control bits of the micro - instruction transmited in the tag registers 3 to 8 . processing of one micro - instruction is divided into the micro - operations of each cycle of d , r , a , b 1 , b 2 , e 1 , e 2 , ck and w . each micro - operation is as follows . ( 1 ) in the d cycle , the op code of the machine instruction is decoded and the micro - instruction words are read from the control memory cs 2 . ( 2 ) in the r cycle , data for the registers used in address calculation are read on the basis of the micro - instruction words . ( 4 ) in the b 1 and b 2 cycles , desired operand data is read from a buffer memory . ( 5 ) in the e 1 and e 2 cycles , the specified operations are executed . ( 7 ) in the w cycle , operation result data are written into registers . the contents of each tag register are used as explained above for controlling hardware used for processing in each corresponding cycle , such as registers and operation units . fig2 is a block diagram of a hardware structure used for execution of a dummy cycle in this embodiment hereunder . this structure is connected to the pipeline control structure of fig1 . of the micro - instruction words read from the control memory cs 2 , the control fields called instruction tag control phase - a ( itca ), execution mask em , phase - b loop control ( pblc ), end loop ( el ) and iteration counter for phase - b ( itcb ) are used in order to realize a dummy cycle . functions of each field will be described later . in fig2 is an itca register ; 12 is an em register ; 13 is a pblc register ; 14 and 14 &# 39 ; are end loop ( el ) registers ; and 15 and 15 &# 39 ; are itcb registers . blocks 16 to 19 are decoders ; 20 is an itc register ; 21 is itc zero detection circuit ; and 22 is an operation unit . blocks 23 , 27 and 28 are and gates ; 24 is a single loop latch ; 25 and 26 are nand gates ; and 29 is a phase - b - valid latch . the registers 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 and 15 form a part of the phase - a - tag register 3 of fig1 while 14 &# 39 ;, 15 &# 39 ; and 20 form a part of the phase - b - tag register 4 of fig1 . the fields itca , em and pblc are read in phase - a from the corresponding registers 11 , 12 and 13 . similarly , the el and itcb fields are read in phase - b from the registers 14 and 15 . a dummy cycle in this embodiment executes a loop for counting one by one the values present in the em field in the itc register 20 . the time until itc = 0 is the protection or reserved time . the contents of the itca field in the itca register 11 are decoded in the decoder 16 at the end of phase - a and a control signal is output so that the value of the em field is input to the itc register 20 from the em register 12 . the value of the em field in the em register 12 determines the number of loops of the dummy cycle . the contents of the pblc field in the pblc register 13 are decoded in the decoder 17 at the end of phase - a and a control signal is output so that the single loop latch 24 is set . the contents of the el field in the el register 14 are controlled in such a manner that the end loop signal is output from the and gate 23 when the itc zero detection circuit 21 has detected the all -&# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; state of the contents of the itc register 20 . the contents of the itcb field in the itcb register 15 &# 39 ; are decoded by the decoder 19 at the end of phase - b and a control signal is output so that the value obtained by substracting 1 from the value of the itc register 20 is input to the itc register 20 . when the single loop latch 24 is being set and the end loop is not on , the phase - b valid flag is set again for each end of phase - a by the gates 25 and 28 , but it is not reset even for the end of phase - b . in other words , the phase - b valid flag is kept on . the output of and gate 27 is used as a set enable signal to the phase - b - tag register 4 and the contents of the phase - b - tag register 4 are kept constant until this signal is generated when the end loop signal appears . the dummy cycle and the operation of fig2 are explained with reference to the flow diagram of fig3 . in this figure , l to n indicate the execution loop of micro - instructions repeated in the dummy cyc1e . next inst . indicates the execution of the next instruction is being delayed , i . e . time is being reserved , during the dummy cycle . at the end of phase - a , the value of em is input ( em → itc ) into the itc register 20 and the single loop latch 24 is set . at the end of phase - b ( phase - b - release ), it the single loop signal latch 24 is on and the end loop is off , the valid flag ( v ) of phase - b is not reset . therefore , operation of phase - b is executed again and the next instruction ( next inst .) is inhibitted from moving from phase - a to phase - b and is nullified . in addition , at the end of phase - b , operation ( itc - 1 )→ itc is executed . at the end of phase - b , ( itc - 1 )→ itc is executed . since the contents of the itc register 20 is not &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; and the single loop latch 24 is on , the valid flag ( v ) of phase - b is still not reset and the next instruction ( next inst .) is inhibitted from moving to phase - b from phase - a . thereafter , the flow 2 is repeated through the flow n - 1 . since the contents of itc register 20 becomes &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; in phase - b , the end loop signal is generated by the and gate 23 and thereby the output of gate 27 turns on and simultaneously the single loop latch 24 is reset . when the single loop latch becomes off , the dummy cycle terminates and the next instruction ( next inst .) is allowed to move to phase - b from phase - a by the output of gate 27 , phase - b - tag set signal . as explained above , a time - out is generated for the period ( em + 1 )× 2 ×( machine cycle ) when a a desirable value is present in the em field and the timing is protected during such period . the method of realizing a dummy cycle is not restricted to precisely the above method and other adequate methods can also be obtained as required . according to this invention , a desired timing protection can be easily provided by inserting a single micro - instruction in an existing micro - program processor &# 39 ; s control memory and providing the necessary control circuits .