PHY 421:ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
AND MICROPROCESSORS
Introduction to microprocessors
Introduction
• The microprocessor is an advanced electronic device which has arisen out of
logic integrated circuits.
• The rate of development has arguably been greater than with any other
electrical device.
• Its introduction commenced with the microelectronic developments for
integrated circuits, but it has reached the point of creating circuitry with a
density of several million transistors per square centimeter of the
semiconductor slice.
• In particular, the microprocessor can be applied to three principal ranges of
operation:
i. Control (anything from a washing machine program to an oil refinery).
ii. Calculation (anything from a pocket calculator to a simple computer).
iii. Administration (anything from a list of names and addresses to
commercial control).
• A microprocessor is a programmable electronics chip that has computing and decision
making capabilities similar to central processing unit of a computer. Any microprocessor
based systems having limited number of resources are called microcomputers.
• Nowadays, microprocessor can be seen in almost all types of electronics devices like mobile
phones, printers, washing machines etc.
• Microprocessors are also used in advanced applications like radars, satellites and flights.
• Due to the rapid advancements in electronic industry and large scale integration of devices
results in a significant cost reduction and increase application of microprocessors and their
derivatives.
Microprocessor-based system
• Bit: A bit is a single binary digit.
• Word: A word refers to the basic data
size or bit size that can be processed
by the arithmetic and logic unit of the
processor. A 16-bit binary number is
called a word in a 16-bit processor.
• Bus: A bus is a group of wires/lines
that carry similar information.
• System Bus: The system bus is a group of wires/lines used for
communication between the microprocessor and peripherals.
• Memory Word: The number of bits that can be stored in a register or
memory element is called a memory word.
• Address Bus: It carries the address, which is a unique binary pattern used to
identify a memory location or an I/O port. For example, an eight bit address
bus has eight lines and thus it can address 28 = 256 different locations. The
locations in hexadecimal format can be written as 00H – FFH.
• Data Bus: The data bus is used to transfer data between memory and
processor or between I/O device and processor. For example, an 8-bit
processor will generally have an 8-bit data bus and a 16-bit processor will
have 16-bit data bus.
• Control Bus: The control bus carry control signals, which consists of
signals for selection of memory or I/O device from the given address,
direction of data transfer and synchronization of data transfer in case of
slow devices.
• The central processing unit is the microprocessor chip containing the accumulator.
• It is connected to the ROM and to the RAM by three sets of circuits, or buses.
• The address bus relays the direction of the data to be stored or recalled from
memory in order that the correct storage system is used.
• The data, however, are transferred through the data bus.
• the port is the circuitry which connects the microprocessor system to the world
around it.
Expanded block diagram of a microprocessor system
• Block diagram has added in the clock, which provides the timing pulses. Also
decoders have been added, and require introduction. Each set of
connections between the address bus and the various chips connected to it
use the optimum number of address lines.
• A conventional 8-bit microprocessor uses 16 address lines, numbered A0–
A15. However, a typical ROM chip uses only 11 lines, i.e. A0–A10, thus lines
A11–A15 cannot be connected.
• Using the binary system, the range of
information that can be carried by address
lines A0–A10 can be repeated 32 times
appropriate to the range of information that
could appear on lines A11–A15, i.e. 00000,
00001, 00010, etc.
• The decoder uses these upper lines to
control the memory chips and this is termed
mapping the memory.
• For a system which handles 64 K of memory
(equivalent to 65 526 bytes since K = 1024),
typical memory maps are shown in Fig
• A typical microprocessor consists of arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) in association with control
unit to process the instruction execution. Almost all the microprocessors are based on the
principle of store-program concept.
• In store-program concept, programs or instructions are sequentially stored in the memory
locations that are to be executed.
• To do any task using a microprocessor, it is to be programmed by the user. So the programmer
must have idea about its internal resources, features and supported instructions.
• Each microprocessor has a set of instructions, a list which is provided by the microprocessor
manufacturer.
• The instruction set of a microprocessor is provided in two forms: binary machine code and
mnemonics.
• Microprocessor communicates and operates in binary numbers 0 and 1. The
set of instructions in the form of binary patterns is called a machine language
and it is difficult for us to understand. Therefore, the binary patterns are
given abbreviated names, called mnemonics, which forms the assembly
language.
• The conversion of assembly-level language into binary machine-level
language is done by using an application called assembler.
Classification of Microprocessors
• Microprocessors are classified based on:
• Their specification,
• Application and
• Architecture.
Based on size of data bus
• 4-bit microprocessor
• 8-bit microprocessor
• 16-bit microprocessor
• 32-bit microprocessor
• 64-bit microprocessor
Based on application
• General-purpose microprocessor- used in general computer system and can
be used by programmer for any application. Examples, 8085 to Intel
Pentium.
• Microcontroller- microprocessor with built-in memory and ports and can be
programmed for any generic control application. Example, 8051.
• Special-purpose processors- designed to handle special functions required for
an application. Examples, digital signal processors and application-specific
integrated circuit (ASIC) chips.
Based on architecture
• Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processors
• Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) processors
History of Microprocessor
• The historical development of the microprocessors can document increases in clock speed (the speed at
which a processor executes instructions) and number of transistors in chips.
• Since 1982, Intel has been the leading manufacturer of processors. They used a model number to identify the
various chips (Intel 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486).
• Later, they decided to identify their microprocessors with names: Pentium® processors, Celeron TM
processors (less expensive PCs) and XeonTM processors (workstations, servers).
• Pentium has been developed to be available with clock frequencies of up to 155 MHz and it uses a speedy
version of CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) technology and a 64-bit internal data bus.
• Users of multimedia applications should obtain an Intel processor equipped with MMXTM technology, in
which a set of instructions is built in the processor so it can manipulate and process multimedia data more
efficiently.
• An alternative to the Intel-style microprocessor is the Motorola microprocessor, which
is in Apple Macintosh and Power Macintosh systems.
• The RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processor used in Apple‘s
PowerPC introduced a new architecture that increased the speed of the processor
because it had been designed to understand a relatively small number of basic
instructions.
• The Alpha microprocessor, which was developed by Digital Equipment
Corporation, is used primarily in workstations and high-end servers. Current models
of the Alpha chip run at clock speeds from 300 to 600 MHz.
Technological Innovations of Microprocessors
• Digital signal processors (DSPs): A specific new class of microprocessors intended for
processing analog signals by sampling their momentary values and using digital processing
methods for this
• Transputers: This is 32-bit microprocessors with a memory and direct links for connection
to other transputer units cooperating in a network system.
• Programmable logic devices (PLDs): complex programmable logic systems consisting of
several logic blocks connected via a programmable interconnect matrix.
• Fifth-generation computers (5G-computers): They have CPU replaced by a problem-
solving and interference machine (or called interference engine, control structure, rule
interpreter) which enables dialogue between a computer and its user, often in a natural
language, for instance.
• A coprocessor is a special processor chip or circuit board that assists the processor
in performing specific tasks. Users running engineering, scientific, or graphic
applications, for instance, will notice a dramatic increase in speed applications that
take advantage of a floating-point coprocessor (sometimes called math or numeric
coprocessors).
• When a coprocessor is not connected in the system and the functions of the
coprocessor is done by the CPU by writing coprocessor instructions from a
predetermined location in the form of a software routine and invoked by interrupt,
it is known as coprocessor trap‘. There are three fields in a coprocessor
instruction—these are code, address, and opcode.
• The code field distinguishes between the coprocessor and CPU instructions. The address field
indicates the address of a particular coprocessor. This is required when several coprocessors
are used in the system. The opcode field indicates the type of operation to be executed by the
processor
CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
• The real power of a computer is the titanic speed with which it performs
calculations. A computer sequentially performs one operation at a time. The
time required to perform operations is called the 'Processing Speed' of the
computer. This rate is expressed in millions of instruction per second
(MIPS).
• Computers are classified according to their processing speed. It depends not
only on the hardware characteristics of the system but also on the efficiency
of its software components
• Some hardware characteristics of importance in achieving high processing speed are as
follows:
• Word Length/Size: is the number of bits treated by the computer as a unit. It can be 4-, 8-,
16-, 32-bits and so on e .g., a 16-bit word will be able to hold numbers in the range from
− 215 through +215 − 1. The number of different types of instructions is directly related
to the word length/size. So it can be concluded that larger the word length, the greater the
processing speed.
• Data Path Size: depends on the width of the internal CPU buses. Wider data paths speed
up CPU operations, since more information is transmitted in a single transfer. Other
important hardware functions are the logic family, overlapping of CPU instructions,
memory bandwidth, I/O bandwidth etc
FUNDAMENTAL STEPS OF A MICROPROCESSOR CYCLE
• Execution of an instruction starts from the program counter (PC), which
contains the address of the instruction and ends with the placement of the
result in the appropriate location.
• The sequence of steps during execution of instructions is:
1. Fetch Instruction: Every instruction cycle begins with an op-code fetch
bus cycle i.e., a memory read of the op-code.
2. Determine Operand: The operand is required to execute the instructions.
3. Execute Instruction: Control signal from the control unit activates the
operation, so the instructions are executed.
4. Store the Result: The memory stores the result in the specified location,
and the execution/microprocessor cycle ends
• After completing one instruction, the CPU moves on to the next one. This fetch and execute
process is repeated until all of the instruction (s) in a specific program have been executed.
• The CPU’s lifeblood, its heartbeat is the system clock, which synchronizes all activities within the
computer. Each step in the microprocessor cycle takes at least one tick of the system clock called
a 'Clock Cycle or T Cycle' e.g., one T cycle for 8088 5MHz is 200 nanoseconds.
• We measure the speed of an instruction by the number of clock cycles required to execute it. A
clock cycle is the microprocessor's smallest unit of time measurement.
• Each instruction takes a determined number of clock cycles to execute, depending on the types
of operands.
• The manufacturer and the computer designer determine the speed of the clock itself
Revision questions
• What is a microprocessor?
• When was the first microprocessor developed?
• What is a coprocessor trap?
• Explain the three fields contained in a coprocessor instruction.
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