WHAT IS MICROPROCESSOR

 A microprocessor (also known as a CPU or central processing unit) is a complete

computation engine that is fabricated on a small chip.
 Microprocessor consists of an ALU, register array, and a control unit.
 ALU performs arithmetical and logical operations on the data received from the
memory or an input device.
 Register array consists of registers identified by letters like B, C, D, E, H, L and
accumulator.
 The control unit controls the flow of data and instructions within the computer.

BASIC MICROPROCESSOR TERMINOLOGY

 Instruction Set − It is the set of instructions that the microprocessor can understand.
 Bandwidth − It is the number of bits processed in a single instruction.
 Clock Speed − It determines the number of operations per second the processor can
perform. It is expressed in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz).It is also known as
Clock Rate.
 Word Length − It depends upon the width of internal data bus, registers, ALU, etc.
An 8-bit microprocessor can process 8-bit data at a time. The word length ranges from
4 bits to 64 bits depending upon the type of the microcomputer.
 Data Types − The microprocessor has multiple data type formats like binary, BCD,
ASCII, signed and unsigned numbers.

FEATURES OF A MICROPROCESSOR
 Cost-effective − The microprocessor chips are available at low prices and results its
low cost.
 Size − The microprocessor is of small size chip, hence is portable.
 Low Power Consumption − Microprocessors are manufactured by using metaloxide
semiconductor technology, which has low power consumption.
 Versatility − The microprocessors are versatile as we can use the same chip in a
number of applications by configuring the software program.
 Reliability − The failure rate of an IC in microprocessors is very low, hence it is
reliable.

MICROPROCESSOR DESIGN
 A microprocessor executes programs including the operating system and the
user applications. a program is a group of low level instructions that the
microprocessor executes in a sequence as it receives them.
 When your computer is turned on, the microprocessor gets the first instruction
from the basic input/output system (BIOS). After that, either the BIOS, or the
operating system or an application program will drive the microprocessor,
giving it instructions to perform.
 The microprocessor follows a specific sequence, that is, Fetch, Decode, and
then Execute.
  Initially, the instructions are stored in the memory in a sequential order. The
microprocessor fetches those instructions from the memory, then decodes it
and executes those instructions till STOP instruction is reached. Later, it sends
the result in binary to the output port. Between these processes, the register
stores the temporarily data and ALU performs the computing functions.
 The CPU architecture, in conjunction with CPU speed, determines how fast the
CPU executes instructions of various types.
 The external design of the microprocessor, specifically its external interfaces,
determines how fast it communicates information back and forth with external
cache, main memory, the chipset, and other system components.

MICROPROCESSOR COMPONENTS
A microprocessor has 5 standard components which are:
1. execution unit
2. branch predictor
3. floating point unit
4. primary cache
5. bus interfaces

1. Execution unit
This the core of the CPU, its responsible for processing all the instructions.

2. Branch predictor
it attempts to guess where the program will jump to or branch to next, allowing the
fetch and decode unit to retrieve instructions and data in advance so that they will be
available when the CPU requests them.

3. Floating-point unit
The floating-point unit (FPU) is a specialised logic unit optimised to perform non-
integer calculations much faster than the general-purpose logic unit.

4. Primary cache
It is also called Level 1 or L1 cache, it is a small amount of very fast memory that
allows the CPU to retrieve data immediately, rather than waiting for slower main
memory to respond.

5. Bus interfaces
These are the pathways that connect the microprocessor to the memory and other
components. For example, modern microprocessors connect to the chipset
Northbridge via a dedicated bus called the front side bus (FSB) or host bus.
MICROPROCESSOR SPEED
 The microprocessor clock coordinates all the CPU and memory operations by
periodically generating a time reference signal called a clock cycle or tick.
 The clock frequency is specified in megahertz (MHz), which specifies millions
of ticks per second, or gigahertz (GHz), which specifies billions of ticks per
second.
 Clock speed determines how fast instructions execute, that is, some instructions
require one tick, others multiple ticks, and some processors execute multiple
instructions during one tick.
 The number of ticks per instruction varies according to microprocessor
architecture, its instruction set, and the specific instruction.

**look for other factors that determine the speed of a processor

CATEGORIES OF MICROPROCESSORS
Microprocessors are classified into three categories which are
 RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processors
 CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) processors
 Special processors

RISC (REDUCED INSTRUCTION SET COMPUTER) PROCESSOR

 It is designed to reduce the execution time by simplifying the instruction set of the
computer.
 Each instruction requires only one clock cycle to execute results in uniform execution
time, and this reduces the efficiency as there are more lines of code, hence more RAM
is needed to store the instructions.
 The compiler also has to work more to convert high-level language instructions into
machine code.
 The RISC microprocessor architecture uses highly-optimized set of instructions and it
is used in most portable devices due to its power efficiency, e.g apple ipod.

** look for the types of RISC processors that exist

RISC CHARACTERISTICS
The major characteristics of a RISC processor are: -
 It consists of simple instructions.
 It supports various data-type formats.
 It utilizes simple addressing modes and fixed length instructions for pipelining.
 It supports register to use in any context.
 One cycle execution time.
 “LOAD” and “STORE” instructions are used to access the memory location.
 It consists of larger number of registers.
 It consists of less number of transistors
CISC (COMPLEX INSTRUCTION SET COMPUTER) PROCESSOR
 It is designed to minimize the number of instructions per program, ignoring the
number of cycles per instruction, that is, the emphasis is on building complex
instructions directly into the hardware.
 CISC is designed to decrease the memory cost because more storage is needed in
larger programs resulting in higher memory cost and to resolve this, the number of
instructions per program can be reduced by embedding the number of operations in a
single instruction.
 The compiler has to do very little work to translate a high-level language into
assembly level language/machine code because the length of the code is relatively
short, so very little RAM is required to store the instructions.

** look for the types of CISC processors that exist

CISC CHARACTERISTICS
 Variety of addressing modes.
 Larger number of instructions.
 Variable length of instruction formats.
 Several cycles may be required to execute one instruction.
 Instruction-decoding logic is complex.
 One instruction is required to support multiple addressing modes.

SPECIAL PROCESSORS
These are the processors which are designed for some special purposes, for example
coprocessor, Input/output processor, Transputer (Transistor Computer) and DSP (Digital
Signal Processor)

COPROCESSOR
 A coprocessor is a specially designed microprocessor, which can handle its particular
function many times faster than the ordinary microprocessor, for example, the Maths
Coprocessor.

INPUT/OUTPUT PROCESSOR
 It is a specially designed microprocessor with a local memory of its own, which is
used to control I/O devices with minimum CPU involvement, For example, DMA
(direct Memory Access) controller, Keyboard/mouse controller, Graphic display
controller and SCSI port controller.

TRANSPUTER (TRANSISTOR COMPUTER)

 It is a specially designed microprocessor with its own local memory and having links
to connect one transputer to another transputer for inter-processor communication.
 A transputer can be used as a single processor system or can be connected to external
links, which reduces the construction cost and increases the performance, for
example, 16-bit T212, 32-bit T425 and the floating point processors.
DSP (DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSOR)
 This processor is specially designed to process the analog signals into a digital form
and this is done by sampling the voltage level at regular time intervals and converting
the voltage at that instant into a digital form.
 This process is performed by a circuit called an analogue to digital converter, A to D
converter or ADC.
 A DSP contains the following components: -
1. Program Memory − It stores the programs that DSP will use to
process data.
2. Data Memory − It stores the information to be processed.
3. Compute Engine − It performs the mathematical processing,
accessing the program from the program memory and the data from
the data memory.
4. Input/Output − It connects to the outside world.
 The DSP applications are Sound and music synthesis, Audio and video compression,
Video signal processing and 2D and 3d graphics acceleration.