The instruction fetch and decode unit sends out the current program counter (PC) register value as an address to the program memory. The program memory returns the fetched 128-bit wide instruction value. The instruction value is then decoded, and all control signals are forwarded to the functional units of the AIE-ML v2. The program memory size on the AIE-ML v2 is 16 KB.
The AIE-ML v2 instruction size ranges from 16 to 128 bits and supports multiple instruction formats and variable length instructions to reduce the program memory size. In most cases, the full 128 bits are needed when using all VLIW slots. However, for many instructions in the outer loops, main program, control code, or occasionally the pre and post-ambles of the inner loop, the shorter format instructions are sufficient.