Microprocessor Concepts

Microprocessor is the brain of computer, which does all the work. It is a computer processor that incorporates all the functions of CPU (Central Processing Unit) on a single IC (Integrated Circuit) or at the most a few ICs. Microprocessors were first introduced in early 1970s. 4004 was the first general purpose microprocessor used by Intel in building personal computers. Arrival of low cost general purpose microprocessors has been instrumental in development of modern society the way it has.

We will study the characteristics and components of a microprocessor in detail.

Microprocessors Characteristics:

Microprocessors are multipurpose devices that can be designed for generic or specialized functions. The microprocessors of laptops and smart phones are general purpose whereas ones designed for graphical processing or machine visions are specialized ones. There are some characteristics that are common to all microprocessors.

These are the most important defining characteristics of a microprocessor −

• Clock speed
• Instruction set
• Word size

Clock Speed:

Every microprocessor has an internal clock that regulates the speed at which it executes instructions and also synchronizes it with other components. The speed at which the microprocessor executes instructions is called clock speed. Clock speeds are measured in MHz or GHz where 1 MHz means 1 million cycles per second whereas 1 GHz equals to 1 billion cycles per second. Here cycle refers to single electric signal cycle.

Currently microprocessors have clock speed in the range of 3 GHz, which is maximum that current technology can attain. Speeds more than this generate enough heat to damage the chip itself. To overcome this, manufacturers are using multiple processors working in parallel on a chip.

Word Size:

Number of bits that can be processed by a processor in a single instruction is called its word size. Word size determines the amount of RAM that can be accessed at one go and total number of pins on the microprocessor. Total number of input and output pins in turn determines the architecture of the microprocessor.

First commercial microprocessor Intel 4004 was a 4-bit processor. It had 4 input pins and 4 output pins. Number of output pins is always equal to the number of input pins. Currently most microprocessors use 32-bit or 64-bit architecture.

Instruction Set:

A command given to a digital machine to perform an operation on a piece of data is called an instruction. Basic set of machine level instructions that a microprocessor is designed to execute is called its instruction set. These instructions do carry out these types of operations −

• Data transfer
• Arithmetic operations
• Logical operations
• Control flow
• Input/output and machine control

Microprocessor Components:

Compared to the first microprocessors, today’s processors are very small but still they have these basic parts right from the first model −

• CPU
• Bus
• Memory

CPU:

CPU is fabricated as a very large scale integrated circuit (VLSI) and has these parts −

·        Instruction register − It holds the instruction to be executed.

·        Decoder − It decodes (converts to machine level language) the instruction and sends to the ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit).

·        ALU − It has necessary circuits to perform arithmetic, logical, memory, register and program sequencing operations.

·        Register − It holds intermediate results obtained during program processing. Registers are used for holding such results rather than RAM because accessing registers is almost 10 times faster than accessing RAM.

Bus:

Connection lines used to connect the internal parts of the microprocessor chip is called bus. There are three types of buses in a microprocessor −

·        Data Bus − Lines that carry data to and from memory are called data bus. It is a bidirectional bus with width equal to word length of the microprocessor.

·        Address Bus − It is a unidirectional responsible for carrying address of a memory location or I/O port from CPU to memory or I/O port.

·        Control Bus − Lines that carry control signals like clock signals, interrupt signal or ready signal are called control bus. They are bidirectional. Signal that denotes that a device is ready for processing is called ready signal. Signal that indicates to a device to interrupt its process is called an interrupt signal.

Memory:

Microprocessor has two types of memory

·        RAM − Random Access Memory is volatile memory that gets erased when power is switched off. All data and instructions are stored in RAM.

·        ROM − Read Only Memory is non-volatile memory whose data remains intact even after power is switched off. Microprocessor can read from it any time it wants but cannot write to it. It is preprogrammed with most essential data like booting sequence by the manufacturer.