Lecture Notes # 1

Introduction outline class

 Historical background.
 Data Acquisition system (DAS).
 Evaluation of Integrated Circuit (ICs) Technology.
 Evaluation of Microprocessors (µps).
 Typical Applications.

Historical background of electronic devices:

1947 Invention of Transistor.

1959 Invention of integrated Circuits (ICs).

1971 Development of First Microprocessor.

1976 Development of First Microcontroller.

Microprocessor or a central processor unit (cpu) that is contained on a single

silicon chip.

Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) in General

Data acquisition systems (DAS) interface between the real world of physical
quantity parameters, which are analog, and the artificial world of digital
computation and control. With current emphasis on digital systems, the interfacing
function has become an important one; digital systems are used widely because
complex circuits are low cost, accurate, and relatively simple to implement. In
addition, there is rapid growth in the use of microprocessors and microcomputers
to perform difficult digital control and measurement functions.

The devices that perform the interfacing function between analog and digital
worlds are analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters, which
together are known as data converters. Besides A/D and D/A converters, data
acquisition and distribution systems may employ one or more of the following
circuit functions: transducers, amplifiers, filters, nonlinear analog functions, analog
multiplexers, sample and hold circuits.

Page 1
The input to the system is a physical parameter such as temperature, pressure,
flow, acceleration, position, among others, which are analog quantities. The
parameter is first converted into an electrical signal by means of a transducer; once
in electrical form, all further processing is done by electronic circuits. Next, an
amplifier boosts the amplitude of the transducer output signal to a useful level for
further processing. Transducer outputs may be microvolt or millivolt level signals,
which are then amplified to 1 or to 10 V levels. Furthermore, the transducer output
may be a high-impedance signal, a differential signal with common-mode noise, a
current output, a signal superimposed on a high voltage, or a combination of these.
The amplifier, in order to convert such signals into a high-level voltage, may be
one of several specialized types. The amplifier is frequently followed by a low-pass
active filter that reduces high-frequency signal components, unwanted electrical
interference noise, or electronic noise from the signal. The amplifier is sometimes
also followed by a special nonlinear analog function circuit that performs a
nonlinear operation on the high-level signal. Such operations include squaring,
multiplication, division, log conversion, or linearization. Each input is in turn
connected to the output of the multiplexer for a specified period of time by the
multiplexer switch. During this connection time, a sample-hold circuit acquires the
signal voltage and then holds its value while an A/D converter converts the value
into digital form. The resultant digital word goes to a computer data bus or to the
input of a digital circuit.

The timing and control of the complete DAS is done by a digital circuit called a
programmer-sequencer, which in turn is under the control of the computer. In some
cases, the computer itself may control the entire DAS. Here, the digital data must
be converted to parallel form and then multiplexed onto the computer data bus.
Figure 1 shows block diagram of data acquisition stage.

Page 2
 Figure 1: Data acquisition stage.

The data distribution portion of a feedback control system, illustrated in Figure 2,

is the reverse of the data acquisition stage. The computer, based on the inputs of
the data acquisition system, processes the input digital data information and control
it by means of output control functions. These control outputs are in digital form
and must be converted into analog form in order to drive the final stage process.
The conversion is accomplished by a series of D/A converters. Each D/A converter
are coupled to the computer data bus by means of a register, which stores the
digital word until the next update. The registers are activated sequentially by a
decoder and control circuit, which is under computer control. The D/A converter
outputs then the final stage of drive actuators.

Figure 2: Data distribution stage

Page 3
Evolution of Intel Microprocessors

- Intel 4004: the world’s first microprocessor developed by Intel Corporation

in 1971.
• 4-bit cpu
• 4096 4-bit memory locations
• Speed: 50k Ins./sec (instructions per second)

- Intel introduced 8086 microprocessor in 1978. This 16-bit

microprocessor was a major improvement over the previous generation
of 8080/8085 series of microprocessors.
Cpu (8086) Cpu (8080/8085)
1 Megabyte Memory of 64 kilobyte
(20-bit add. bus) (16-bit add. bus)
16-bit Data bus 8-bit data bus
Pipelined processor Non-pipelined µp
(First single-chip µp.)

In a system with pipelining, the data and the address bus are busy transferring
data while the CPU is processing information.

- 8086 was with 16-bit data bus internally and externally. All registers
and the data bus carrying data in/out of the CPU were 16-bit.
• That time all the peripherals were designed around 8-bit microprocessor.
• It was expensive to build PCB with 16-bit data bus.
- So Intel introduced 8088 which was;
• Identical to 8086 internally, but externally 8-bit data bus instead of 16-bit.
• It had 1 megabyte of memory like 8086.

- IBMs decision to pick up 8088 as their choice of microprocessor in

designing the IBM PC.
• 8088-based IBM PC was enormous success, because IBM and
Microsoft made it an open system.
• This enabled the cloning of this system and resulted a huge growth
in both hardware and software designs based on IBM PC.
• In contrast IBMs main competitor Apple computer introduced a closed
system and blocked all attempts of cloning.

Page 4
 - 80286: Intel introduced 80286 in 1982.
• With 16-bit internal and external data bus.
• 24-bit address bus (224 = 16 megabyte)
• Virtual memory: a way of fooling the microprocessor into thinking that it
has access to unlimited memory by swapping data between disk storage
and RAM.
• Real mode (faster operation with maximum of 1 Mbytes of memory)
vs. protected mode protecting the operating system for accidental or
deliberate destruction of the user. Protected mode is slower but can use
16 Mbytes of memory.

- 80386: introduced in 1985 also known as (80386DX)

• With 32-bit internal and external data bus.
• 32-bit address bus (232 = 4 gigabyte-physical memory). With virtual
memory 64 terabytes (246).
• 80386SX was later introduced with the same internal structure with 16-
bit external data bus and 24-bit address bus. 80386SX was much
cheaper.

All microprocessors discussed so far were general-purpose microprocessors and

could not handle mathematical operations rapidly. For this reason, 8087, 80287,
80387 numeric data processing chips called math co-processors were used.
- 80486: introduced in 1989 with 32-bit internal-external data bus and 32-bit
address bus.
• Built in math co-processor in a single chip.
• Introduction of cache memory ( Static RAM with very fast access time)

Other Intel Microprocessors versions are summarized by the following table:

Table: Evolution of Intel Microprocessors

Processor Year Transistors Clock Rate External Internal Add. Bus
Intro. (MHz) Data Bus Data Bus
4004 1971 2,250 0.108 4 8 12
8008 1972 2,500 0.200 8 8 14
8080 1974 5,000 3 8 8 16
8085 1976 6,000 6 8 8 16
8086 1978 29,000 10 16 16 20
8088 1979 29,000 10 8 16 20
80286 1982 120,000 12.5 16 16 25

Page 5
 80386DX 1985 275,000 33 32 32 32
80386SX 1988 275,000 33 16 32 24
80486 1989 1,180,000 50 32 32 32
Pentium C 1993 3,100,000 66 -200 64 32 32
Pentium MMX 1997 4,500,000 300 64 32 32
Pentium Pro 1995 5,500,000 200 64 32 36
Pentium II 1997 7,500,000 233-450 64 32 36
Pentium III 1999 9,500,000 550-733 64 32 36
Itanium 2001 30,000,000 800-… 128 64 64

Fabrication of the Integrated Circuit (IC) components

Usually electronic components such as diodes, transistors and Capacitors are made
on monolithic integrated circuit (IC). In order to fabricate these IC components
impurities are added or diffused in the semiconductor wafer (or substrate) to
introduce a PN junction as shown in below figures.

Page 6
 Evaluation of Integrated Circuit (ICs) Technology
Year Technology No. of devices Typical
Application
1947 Invention of 1 -
Transistor
1950-1960 Discrete components 1 Diode and Transistor

1961-1965 Small Scale 10-100 Logic Gates, F.Fs

Integration (SSI)
1966-1970 Medium Scale 100-1000 Counter, MUX,
Integration (MSI) Decoders, Adders,
Sub.,….
1971-1979 Large Scale 1000-20,000 8bit µps, RAM, ROM
Integration (LSI)
1980-1984 Very Large Scale 20,000-50,000 DSP,RISC,
Integration (VLSI) 16-32 µps
1985- Ultra Large Scale 750,000 64 bit µps
Integration (ULSI)

Typical features of ICs

- Small size
- Lower cost
- Higher reliability
- Lower power consumption
- Higher versatility
- More powerful

Evaluation of Microprocessors and Microcontrollers:

It is important to note that 80286, 80386, 80486, and Pentium-Pentium4

microprocessors are upward compatible with the 8086 Architecture. This
mean that 8086/8088 code will run on the 80286, 80386, 80486, and
Pentium Processors, but the reverse in not true if any of the new
instructions are in use.
Beside to the general-purpose microprocessors, these families involve
another type called special-purpose microprocessors that used in
embedded control applications. This type of embedded microprocessors

Page 7
is called microcontroller. The 8080, 8051, 8048, 80186, 80C186XL are some
examples of microcontroller.

Microcontroller (µC) Microprocessor (µP) Special purposes µp

- 4004 -
- 8008 -
- 8080 -
8048 8085 -
8051 8086 -
80186 8088 -
8096 80286 DSP 2920
. 80386 TMS320
. 80486 µpp 7720
. Pentium .
. RISC .
. . .
. .
. General Purpose -------------------------------
processors Special purpose Digital
Embedded Systems Signal Processors (DSP)

Microprocessor Versus. Microcontroller Architectures:

Central Processor Unit (CPU) Microcontroller (µC)

ALU
Registers CPU I/O ports
Control INTERFACES RAM Timer/Counter
Units ROM Serial I/O
Timing
Signals

Page 8
Applications
- General purpose microprocessors:
 Desktop ,PC, Laptop
 Workstation
 Server
- Microcontroller as embedded system which could be defined as a
combination of a hardware and software and it was designed for some
specific applications such as:-
 Consumer electronics (Toys, Cameras, Robots, …)
 Consumer products (Washing machines, Microwave Ovens, ...)
 Instrumentations (Oscilloscope, Medical equipment, …)
 Process control (Data Acquisition and control)
 Communication (Telephone Sets, Answering Machine, …)
 Office (Fax machine, Printer,…)
 Emerging Multimedia applications (Call phones, Teleconferencing,
…)
- Special purpose (DSP processors, Switches, Routers, Intrusion Detection,
…)

Page 9