Scribd
Upload
83 views4 pages

Unit 3 - The Processor

The processor, also known as the CPU, is an electronic circuit that executes computer programs by following sets of instructions. Early CPUs were custom-built for specific computers but are now mass produced standardized chips. The CPU fetches instructions from memory, decodes them, executes the desired operations such as arithmetic, and writes results back to memory in a repeating cycle. Modern CPUs contain many transistors on integrated circuits which has increased their power and complexity over time.

Uploaded by

Andreea Craescu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
83 views4 pages

Unit 3 - The Processor

The processor, also known as the CPU, is an electronic circuit that executes computer programs by following sets of instructions. Early CPUs were custom-built for specific computers but are now mass produced standardized chips. The CPU fetches instructions from memory, decodes them, executes the desired operations such as arithmetic, and writes results back to memory in a repeating cycle. Modern CPUs contain many transistors on integrated circuits which has increased their power and complexity over time.

Uploaded by

Andreea Craescu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Unit 3 – The Processor

Unit 3
The Processor

1
Unit 3 – The Processor

5 A CPU or processor is an electronic circuit that can execute computer programs,


which are actually sets of instructions. This term has been in use in the computer industry
at least since the early 1960s. The form, design and implementation of CPUs have
changed dramatically since the earliest examples but their fundamental operation remains
much the same.
10 Early CPUs were custom-designed as a part of a larger, sometimes one-of-a-kind,
computer. However, this costly method of designing custom CPUs for a particular
application has largely given way to the development of mass-produced processors that
are made for one or many purposes. This standardisation trend generally began in the era
of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has rapidly accelerated with the
15popularization of the IC. Transistorized CPUs no longer had to be built out of bulky,
unreliable, and fragile switching elements like vacuum tubes and electrical relays. With
this improvement more complex and reliable CPUs were built onto one or several printed
circuit boards containing discrete components. During this period, a method of
manufacturing many transistors in a compact space gained popularity. The IC allowed a
20large number of transistors to be manufactured on a single semiconductor-based die, or
“chip”. At first only very basic non-specialised digital circuits such as NOR gates were
miniaturised into ICs. CPUs based upon these “building block” ICs, are generally
referred to as SSI devices. To build an entire CPU out of SSI ICs required thousands of
individual chips, but still consumed much less space and power than earlier discrete
25transistor designs. As microelectronic technology advanced, an increasing number of
transistors were placed on ICs, thus decreasing the quantity of individual ICs needed for a
complete CPU. MSI and LSI ICs increased transistor counts to hundreds, and even
thousands.
In 1964, IBM introduced its System/360 computer architecture which was used in
30a series of computers that could run the same program with different speed and
performance.
There are four steps that nearly all CPUs use in their operation: fetch, decode,
execute and writeback.
The first step, fetch, involves retrieving an instruction (which is represented by a
35number or a sequence of numbers) from program memory. The location in program
memory is determined by a PC, which stores a number that identifies the current position
in the program. After an instruction is fetched, the PC is incremented by the length of the
instruction word in terms of memory units. Often the instruction to be fetched must be
retrieved from relatively slow memory, causing the CPU to stall while waiting for the
40instruction to be returned.
In the decode step, the instruction is broken up into parts that have significance to
other portions of the CPU. The way in which the numerical instruction value is
interpreted is defined by the CPUs ISA. More often than not, one group of numbers in the
instruction, called the opcode, indicates which operation to perform. The remaining parts
45of the number usually provide information required for that instruction, such as operands
for an addition operation. Such operands may be given as a constant value (called an
immediate value), or as a place to locate a value: a register or a memory address, as
determined by some addressing mode.
After the fetch and decode steps, the execute step is performed. During this step,
50various portions of the CPU are connected so they can perform the desired operation. If,

2
5 Unit 3 – The Processor

for instance, an addition operation was requested, an ALU will be connected to a set of
inputs and a set of outputs. If the addition operation produces a result too large for the
CPU to handle, an arithmetic overflow flag in a flags register may also be set.
The final step, writeback, simply “writes back” the results of the execute step to
55some form of memory. Very often the results are written to some internal CPU register for
quick access by subsequent instructions. Some types of instructions manipulate the
program counter rather than directly produce result data. These are generally called
“jumps” and facilitate behaviour like loops, conditional program execution (through the
use of a conditional jump), and functions in programs.
60 After the execution of the instruction and writeback of the resulting data, the
entire process repeats, with the next instruction cycle normally fetching the next-in
sequence instruction because of the incremented value in the program counter.

3
Unit 3 – The Processor

65

You might also like