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Register transfer notation

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Register Transfer Notation (or RTN) is a way of specifying the behavior of a digital synchronous circuit[1]. Register Transfer Languages (or RTL, where the L sometimes stands for Level of abstraction) are similar to Register Transfer Notation and used to describe much the same thing, however they are of a synthesizable format and more similar to a standard computer programming language, like C.

RTN may be written as either abstract or concrete. Abstract RTN is a generic notation which does not have any specific machine implementation details. In contrast, concrete RTN is a notation which does implement specifics of the machine for which it is designed. The possible locations in which transfer of information occurs are:

  1. Memory-location
  2. Processor Register
  3. Registers in I/O device


  1. ^ V. Heuring, H. Jordan (1997). Ch 2 RTN.