16-03-2012, 02:14 PM
microprocessor
Chapter 1 micro processer.doc (Size: 470 KB / Downloads: 29)
History
The microprocessor is the combination of solid – state technology development and the advancing computer technologies which came together in the early 1970s. With the low cost of a device and the flexibility of a computer, microprocessor is a product which performs both control and processing functions.
A brief history
The microprocessor of two major technologies; digital computer and solid – state circuits. These two technologies came together in the early 1970s, allowing engineers to produce the microprocessor.
The digital computer is a set of digital circuit controlled by a program that makes it do the job you want done. The program tells the digital how to move process data. It does this by using the digital computer’s calculating logic, memory circuits, and I/O devices. The way the digital computer’s logic circuits are put together to build the calculating logic, memory circuits, and I/O devices is called its architecture.
What is a microprocessor?
The microprocessor uses the same type of logic that is used in a digital computer’s central processing unit (CPU). Because it is similar to the CPU and it is constructed with microcircuit (IC) technology. The microprocessor has digital circuit for data handling and computation under program control. (The microprocessor is a data processing unit) Data processing is the microprocessor’s main function. Data processing includes both computation and data handling. Computation is performed by logic circuits that make up what is usually called the arithmetic logic unit (ALU). These logic circuits enable us to use functions that cause data changes. Among these functions are Add, Subtract, AND, OR, XOR, Compare, Increment, and Decrement. The ALU cannot perform any of these functions with out data operation on. In order to process data, the microprocessor must have control logic which tells the microprocessor how to decode and execute the program.