> Is there presently anyway I can get a Pic16c54 or any other Pic for that
> matter to be able to execute code at 1 nanosecond per instruction? If
> not possible with Pics are there any other microcontrollers that can
> execute instructions this fast? Thanx in advance for for responding.

I think the best you can do cheaply nowadays is about 250MIPS in a
microprocessor.  My current favourite is the StrongARM, which will do
internal cycles at 235Mhz, with a bus of up to 66MHz.  This requires
32-bit memory though (ROM and RAM).

Alternatively, you can use programmable logic to build a state machine --
this will go up to the same kind of speed if you've got fast devices.
Using ECL it should be possible to hit 500-600MHz clock rates.  Beyond
that you're talking transmission lines anyway, so you can use transmission
lines as delay elements.  Programmability goes out of the window, of course.

Try to see if the problem you're trying to solve can be approached from
a different angle (massive parallelism, improved algorithms, off-the-shelf
test&measurement kit, etc.).

Frank