1

Basic and Historical Definitions

This chapter, introduction to the field, presents after the basic definitions, a history.
In this context, the key characteristics of the microprocessors representative of these
five decades are given.

1.1. Basic definitions

A microprocessor or MPU (MicroProcessor1 Unit) is the integrated version of the

central processing unit2 (CPU) of computers from the 1960s, the prefix “micro”
referring to miniaturization3. The central unit was made up of several electronic cards
at the time where many integrated circuits in DIP (Dual-In-Line Package; cf. § 3.3 of
Darche (2004)) were installed. These cards communicated with each other using a
backplane bus (cf. § V2-4.2.7). The architecture of the microprocessor therefore
inherits that of the central processing units of previous computers, themselves
resulting from the von Neumann model (cf. § V1-3.2.2) for almost all. Of course, all of
the current features, such as virtual memory (VM) or cache (this will be covered in a
future book), were only gradually integrated due to the integration limitations of the
technologies of the time.

1 The term “microprocessor” was used for the first time by the company Viatron Computer
Systems Corporation in 1968 to name its terminal System 21 2140/2150 (Computers and
Automation 1968; Bassett 2002) of which the CPU consisted only of discrete logic
components of type MSI/LSI.
2 In the sense of Chapter 3 of Volume 1, that is, without integrated primary memory (for
now!).
3 It should not be associated with that of microprogramming (this will be covered in a future
book by the author on microprocessors) because the control of a microprocessor is not
necessarily microprogrammed. It can be wired.

Microprocessor 3: Core Concepts – Hardware Aspects,

First Edition. Philippe Darche.
© ISTE Ltd 2020. Published by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2 Microprocessor 3

This component is in the form of a single Integrated Circuit (IC) in monolithic

version, originally belonging to the LSI category (Large-Scale Integration;
cf. § V1-1.2) and developed in PMOS technology (positive (channel) metal-oxide
semiconductor; cf. § 2.1.3 of Darche (2004)). Today, the microprocessor, essentially
CMOS technology (Complementary MOS; cf. § 2.4 of Darche (2004)), offers parallel
hardware execution. Exceptions included where the microprocessor was a set of
integrated circuits, an example being the iAPX 432 (Witten and Cleary 1983) of the
company Intel made up of three integrated circuits but that remained marginal.

From a logical point of view, a microprocessor is a sequential system

(cf. Chapter 3 of Darche (2002)) programmable, synchronous4 most of the time, which
executes a program, that is, an ordered sequence of instructions, stored in a so-called
central, main or primary memory, volatile or not. We can see it as a complex form of
state machine (FSM for Finite-State Machine; cf. § 3.7.3 of Darche (2002)).

Its basic instructions make it possible to carry out the logical and arithmetic
processing of information and to carry out a transfer of control. To do this, it has three
functions, calculation, storage and transfer of information.

When it integrates memory and Input/Output (I/O) controllers, it becomes a

microcontroller or MCU (MicroController or MicroComputer Unit; cf. § 5.3)
including the TMS 1000 from the company Texas Instruments (TI – 1974) was the
first representative. The microprocessor can be general purpose (multipurpose or
general-purpose MPU, GPP for General-Purpose Processor) or specialized in an
application domain (ASP for Application-Specific Processor or ASIP for Application-
Specific Instruction set Processor). The Digital Signal Processor (cf. 5.2) is a
microprocessor specializing in digital signal processing, which is found, for example,
in home video amplifiers. A subcategory of ASP is the bespoke processor (Moore
2017), a proposal by Cherupalli (2017) where the custom architecture is automatically
generated to meet the needs of applications with high energy constraints such as the
Internet of Things (IoT). The fields of use of the microprocessor are obviously IT,
micro or classic, but industrial embedded systems are the real market. Since 2000, the
trend has always been towards more integration. This has led to the emergence of
systems-on-chip (SoCs, cf. § V1-1.2 and § V2-4.2.9), which involves the integration of
an entire digital system, that is, multiple processors, memory and I/O controllers, into a
single chip.

By extension, a processor is a reduction of a microprocessor in the sense that it

contains at least one control unit, a calculation unit and registers. Today we also talk of
core. The latter term appeared with the integration on the same chip of several cores in

4 The asynchronous version is envisaged for reasons of power consumption and signal
propagation time, but it remains marginal industrially.
 Basic and Historical Definitions 3

2001 (multicore approach) with, today (2018), a dozen cores integrated on industrial
chips. This trend was a response to the powerwall (cf. § V1-1.5), which materializes
the physical limit.

1.2. History

The microprocessor was created in California in Silicon Valley. It was originally

designed to meet the needs of a Japanese manufacturer of desktop calculators, the
Nippon Calculating Machine Corporation. Intel5 announced it commercially in an
advertisement in the November 15, 1971, issue of Electronic News. In fact, this
component was part of a family of four integrated circuits called MCS-4 (Intel 1973),
MCS for Micro Computer Set. It consisted of the ROM with I/O port of 2 Kib, the
RAM with output port of 320 bits, the SIPO register (Serial-In Parallel-Out) of 10 bits
and the CPU referenced respectively 4001, 4002, 4003 and 4004. Originally, this
company required the design of 12 integrated circuits for the Busicom 141-P
calculating machine (Figure 1.1(a)). Marcian6 E. Hoff, Jr., engineer in charge of the
project at Intel, had the idea of integrating a programmable logic system.
Subsequently, the rights were transferred to the company Intel for $60,000 at the time.
The MPU included 2,300 transistors (Figure 1.1(b)), and it had a 4-bit architecture
with single internal bus (cf. § V1-3.4.1). Ironically, the idea of the microprocessor was
patented by the company Texas Instruments (Boone 1973). Additional historical
information can be found in Noyce and Hoff (1981), Mazor (1995) and Halfhill
(2006).

Before the microprocessor, there were several offers for the integration of logical
subsets. Let us cite, in 1967, the company Fairchild which introduced a calculation
unit in 8-bit format with an accumulator under the reference AL1. In 1969, the
company Four Phased founded by Lee Boysel introduced a terminal using this
component, perhaps the first bit-slice microprocessor (cf. § 5.1). In 1971, the offer
revolved around families of components allowing realizing the function of MPU in
discrete components. Let us take as an example of the MAPS family
(Microprogrammable Arithmetic Processor System) from the company National
Semiconductor (NS), which was a family of five components composed among others
of an Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) (MM5700), a register unit (MM5701), a
control unit with a clock circuit (MM5702) and a control ROM (MM5705). In

5 The company Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, by Robert Noyce, Andy Grove and
Gordon Moore, ex-employees of the company Fairchild, the latter not believing in the concept
or unwilling to get started. Intel also designed the first RAM (Random Access Memory; cf.
Chapter 4 of Darche (2012)) and the first EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only
Memory; this will be covered in a future book by the author on memories).
6 Nicknamed Ted.
4 Microprocessor 3

addition, industrialists working for the American military worked on this type of
family long before. Let us cite the D200 from Autonetics/North American Aviation
(Booher 1968; Shirriff 2016).

a) b)

Figure 1.1. (a) The Busicom 141-P calculator and (b) photomicrograph of the
4004 (respective sources: Wikipedia.org and the Intel company). For a color
version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/darche/microprocessor3.zip

The next generation was the 8008, a component originally designed for the
Datapoint 2200 terminal from Computer Terminal Corporation. The latter did not use
it for performance reasons. It should be noted that the first MPU was the TMX 1795
(X for eXperimental) from the company TI, prototyped but never sold. The reference
patent is Boone (1973). It was designed to replace the CPU of the Datapoint 2200
terminal. In 1972, the 8008 was used by the French company R2E to manufacture the
first7 microcomputer (MICRAL N released in 1973). This circuit manufactured in
PMOS technology like its predecessor included 3,500 transistors. Its 8-bit architecture
was single internal bus. The calculations despite its format were performed in n = 1 bit

7 Americans consider that the first microcomputer is American. It is the Altair 8800 from the
American manufacturer MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), sold as a kit
in 1975 ( cf. § V1-1.2).
 Basic and Historical Definitions 5

format. It was later followed by PPS-4 from Rockwell, PPS-25 from Fairchild,
IMP-168 from NS and 5065 from Mostek.

To increase the speed of calculation, one approach has been to increase the format
n of calculation. We also speak of bit-level parallelism. Thus, microprocessors can be
classified into five generations by taking as a criterion the format of the integers that it
handles. The first generation was that of 4 bits, then that of 8 bits, 16 bits and 8 bits
improved, 32 bits and the fifth 64 bits. From the 16-bit generation, the components
were called (at the time) “super microprocessor” (Vajda 1986) because they become
able to execute programs written in High-Level programming Languages (HLL) and
to support a multitasking Operating System (OS). Suzuoki et al. (1999) proposed a
128-bit version.

Table 1.1 presents two key characteristics of microprocessor development. The

microprocessor now processes integers in 64-bit format when their format was
originally 4 bits. The number of integrated transistors has increased from a few
thousand to 10 billion. It thus doubled approximately every 18 months according to
Moore’s “law” allowing the integration of new functional units. Knowing that the
acronyms CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) and RISC (Reduced Instruction
Set Computer; this will be covered in a future book by the author on microprocessors)
refer to models of ISA (Instruction Set Architecture, cf. § V1-3.5), it should be noted
the downward difference in the number of transistors of this second architecture for a
higher computing power. The economic aspect of the development of integrated
circuits can be found in Moore (2003). In particular, it was found that the price of the
transistor went from $1 in 1968 to $10-6 in 1998, a slope of about 37%/year.

Format n
Number
Year of bits of
Company Reference Type of
marketing integer
transistors
processing
2,300
1971 Intel 4004 CISC 4
(2,238)
1972 Intel 8008 CISC 8 3,500
1974 Intel 4040 CISC 4 3,000
1974 Intel 8080 CISC 8 4,500
1974 Motorola MC6800 CISC 8 4,100
1975 MOS Technology MCS6502 CISC 8 4,528
1976 RCA CDP1802 CISC 8 5,000

8 IMP for Integrated MicroProcessor, bit-slice version ( cf. § 5.1).

6 Microprocessor 3

1976 Intel 8085 CISC 8 6,500

1976 Zilog Z80 CISC 8 8,500
1977 Motorola MC6802 CISC 8 11,000
1978
Motorola MC6809 CISC 8 9,000
(12/77)
1978 Intel 8086 CISC 16 29,000
1979 Intel 8088 CISC 16 29,000
1979 Zilog Z8001 CISC 16 17,500
1979 Motorola MC68000 CISC 16 68,000
1981 Intel iAPX 432 CISC 32 97,000
1982 UC Berkeley RISC I RISC 32 44,420
1982 Intel 80186 CISC 16 55,000
1982 Intel 80286 CISC 16 134,000
1983 UC Berkeley RISC II RISC 32 40,760
Stanford
1983 MIPS RISC 32 24,000
University
1983 Zilog Z80 000 CISC 32 91,000
1984 NS NS32032 CISC 32 70,000
1984 Motorola MC68020 CISC 32 190,000
1985 Intel 80386DX CISC 32 275,000
1985 MIPS R2000 RISC 32 110,000
Fairchild
1986 Clipper RISC 32 300,000
Semiconductor
1986 ARM ARM1 RISC 32 24,800
1987 Motorola MC68030 CISC 32 273,000
1987 ARM ARM2 RISC 32 30,000
1988 MIPS R3000 RISC 32 115,000
1988 Motorola 88100 RISC 32 165,000
1989 Intel 80486DX CISC 32 1,180,235
32/64
1989 Intel i860 RISC > 1 × 106
(FPU)
 Basic and Historical Definitions 7

1991 Motorola MC68040 CISC 32 1,200,000

1991 MIPS R4000 RISC 64 1,350,000
1992 DEC Alpha 21064 RISC 64 1,680,000
1993 Intel Pentium CISC 32 3,100,000
1993 HP PA7100 RISC 32 850,000
1994 Motorola MC68060 CISC 32 2,500,000
1995 Sun UltraSPARC RISC 64 5,200,000
1995 Intel Pentium Pro CISC 32 5,500,000
1996 AMD K5 CISC 32 4,300,000
1997 Intel Pentium II CISC 32 7,500,000
1997 AMD K6 CISC 32 8,800,000
PowerPC
1997 IBM-Motorola RISC 32 6,350,000
750
UltraSPARC
1997 Sun RISC 64 5,400,000
II
1999 Intel Pentium III CISC 32 9,500,000
1999 AMD Athlon CISC 32 22 × 106
Pentium 4
2000 Intel CISC 32 42 × 106
(Willamette)
UltraSPARC
2001 Sun RISC 64 29 × 106
III
2001 Intel Itanium EPIC9 64 25 × 106
2002 Intel Itanium 2 EPIC 64 220 × 106
Pentium 4
2002 Intel CISC 32 55 × 106
(Northwood)
Pentium 4
2004 Intel CISC 32 55 × 106
(Prescott)
UltraSPARC
2005 Sun RISC 64 279 × 106
T1
2006 Intel Core Duo CISC 32 151 × 106
2006 Intel Core 2 Duo CISC 64 241 × 106

9 For Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (cf. § 4.7).

8 Microprocessor 3

2006 Sony/IBM/Toshiba Cell RISC 64 234 × 106

2007 IBM POWER6 RISC 64 790 × 106
UltraSPARC
2007 Sun RISC 64 503 × 106
T2
Core i7
2008 Intel CISC 64 731 × 106
(4 cores)
SPARC T3
2010 Sun/Oracle RISC 64 1 × 109
(16 cores)
Core i7
2010 Intel CISC 64 1,17 × 109
(6 cores)
2014 IBM POWER8 RISC 64 4,2 × 109
SPARC M7
2015 Sun/Oracle RISC 64 10 × 109
(32 cores)

Table 1.1. Number of transistors of the first microprocessors

(Boland and Dollas (1994) completed)

Another classification criterion was the complexity of the architecture. Thus,

Tredennick (1996) offered the first generation, which was that of the first
microprocessors with an operation according to the principles of von Neumann. The
second generation introduced the pipeline (this will be covered in a future book by the
author on microprocessors), the idea being to increase the bus occupancy rate by a
functional division of the microprocessor. The 8088/8086 microprocessor had two
functional units, the Execution Unit (EU) and the Bus Interface Unit (BIU). The third
generation, in 1984, is that of the second-generation pipeline with the MC68020
(three-stage pipeline depth), which was the first MPU to introduce a cache. The fourth
generation introduces the superscalar architecture of the 1990s. The fifth generation is
that of current multicore chips with more than a billion transistors.

Since 1971, the year of its commercial announcement, the functionalities and the
computing power (cf. § V4-3.4) of the microprocessor have not stopped increasing
thanks to the progress of micro-electronic technologies. Its clock frequency went from
740 kHz (1971) to more than 3 GHz (2003) for a core, a factor of over 4,000 in 30
years (Table 1.2). Note that this parameter is an indicator of computing power
(cf. § V4-3.4), but other parameters must be taken into account such as the number of
cycles necessary to execute an instruction (cf. § 2.4.1) or the type of architecture
(cf. § V1-3.1.4).
 Basic and Historical Definitions 9

Reference Internal
Cycle time
Year of sale Company Reference clock frequency f (MHz)
(ns) (= f-1)
of the first version
1971 Intel 4004 740 kHz 1.35 μs
1972 Intel 8008 500 kHz 1.25 or 2 μs
1974 Intel 4040 740 kHz 1.35 μs
1974 Intel 8080 2 500
1974 Motorola MC6800 1 1 μs
1975 MOS Technology MCS6502 1 1 μs
1976 RCA CDP1802 2.5 @ 5 V 400
1976 Intel 8085 3.125 320
1976 Zilog Z80 2.5 400
1977 Motorola MC6802 1 1 μs
1978 (12/77) Motorola MC6809 1 1 μs
1978 Intel 8086 5 200
1979 Intel 8088 5 200
1979 Zilog Z8001 4 250
1979 Motorola MC68000 8 125
1981 Intel iAPX 432 5 200
1982 UC Berkeley RISC I 1 1 μs
1982 Intel 80186 6 166
1982 Intel 80286 10 100
1983 UC Berkeley RISC II 3 233
Stanford
1983 MIPS 2 500
University
1983 Zilog Z80 000 5 200
1984 NS NS32032 10 100
1984 Motorola MC68020 16 62.5
1985 Intel 80386DX 16 62.5
1985 MIPS R2000 8 125
Fairchild
1986 Clipper 33 30
Semiconductor
1986 ARM ARM1 62 16.1
1987 Motorola MC68030 20 50
10 Microprocessor 3

1987 ARM ARM2 8 125

1988 MIPS R3000 12 83.3
1988 Motorola 88100 25 40
1989 Intel 80486DX 25 40
1989 Intel i860 33 30
1991 Motorola MC68040 25 40
1991 MIPS R4000 100 10
1992 DEC Alpha 21064 150 6.66
1993 Intel Pentium 66 15
1993 HP PA7100 100 10
1994 Motorola MC68060 50 20
1995 Sun UltraSPARC 143 6.99
1995 Intel Pentium Pro 150 6.66
1996 AMD K5 75 13.3
1997 Intel Pentium II 233 4.29
1997 AMD K6 166 6.02
1997 IBM-Motorola PowerPC 750 233 4.29
1997 Sun UltraSPARC II 200 5
1999 Intel Pentium III 450 2.22
1999 AMD Athlon 500 2
Pentium 4
2000 Intel 1,300 0.77
(Willamette)
UltraSPARC
2001 Sun 600 1.66
III
2001 Intel Itanium 733 1.36
2002 Intel Itanium 2 1,000 1
Pentium 4
2002 Intel 1,300 0.77
(Northwood)
Pentium 4
2004 Intel 3,400 0.29
(Prescott)
UltraSPARC
2005 Sun 1,200 0.833
T1
2006 Intel Core Duo 1,100 0.90
2006 Intel Core 2 Duo 1,860 0.54
2006 Sony/IBM/Toshiba Cell 3,200 0.313
 Basic and Historical Definitions 11

2007 IBM POWER6 3,600 0.28

UltraSPARC
2007 Sun 1,400 0.71
T2
Core i7
2008 Intel 2,660 0.38
(4 cores)
SPARC T3
2010 Sun/Oracle 1,600 0.625
(16 cores)
Core i7
2010 Intel 3,200 0.31
(6 cores)
2014 IBM POWER8 3,000 0.33
SPARC M7
2015 Sun/Oracle 4,130 0.242
(32 cores)

Table 1.2. Frequency of first microprocessors (Boland and Dollas (1994) completed)

The dotted line in Figure 1.2 indicates the break introduced by the introduction of
multicore in order to stop the increase in the operating frequency. By refining,
Hennessy and Patterson (2011) calculated three growth rates, 15%/year (1978–1986),
then 40% (1986–2003) and, finally, less than 1%/year (2003–2010). The last level
does not mean a stagnation in performance, but it corresponds to the transition to
multicore architecture, the frequency of a core no longer increasing among other
things for reasons of energy dissipation (cf. § 6.1.2). In addition, computing power
(unit of measurement: MIPS for Million Instructions Per Second; cf. § V4-3.4.2)
increases by about 40% per year. The red brick wall symbolizes the physical limit to
integration and, perhaps, that of computing power.

As illustrated in Figure V1-1.15, microelectronic technology for manufacturing

integrated circuits has evolved over time. Initially of the bipolar type, it
slowly evolved towards unipolar technologies, MOS then, today, CMOS. The first
microprocessors were manufactured in unipolar PMOS technologies and NMOS
(negative (channel) MOS) for reasons of switching speed and number of supply
voltages. The tables in Chapter 4 indicate the technologies of these first components.
In addition, these technological advances will have an impact on the value of the
supply voltage (Figure 6.1) and on current consumption. Bipolar technology was only
reserved for areas where speed of calculation was essential, such as the military with
its real-time and signal processing applications. Let us cite as examples of this
component the SBP9989 (Lucas and Sobering 1983) and the F9450, manufactured in
the following technologies respectively I2L (Integrated Injection Logic; cf. § 2.3.2 of
Darche (2004)) and I3L (Isoplanar I2L (Hennig et al. (1977)), which were 16-bit
models from TI and NS respectively. The bit-slice processors (cf. § 5.1) were also
mainly manufactured in bipolar technology for the same reason.
 12
Microprocessor 3

Figure 1.2. Evolution over time of the internal clock frequency and the number of transistors for
the Intel range. For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/darche/microprocessor3.zip
 Basic and Historical Definitions 13

Figure 1.3 shows the classification of the first microprocessors on the market. The
dotted line indicates a break in characteristics (set of instructions not compatible;
cf. § V4-3.3.2). A microprocessor can belong to a family, for example, x86, MIPS or
SPARC. This notion was introduced by Stevens (1964) who defined it as a set of
processor implementations, each of which, capable of executing programs written for
others. As for the classes of Bell (2008a, 2008b) (cf. § V1-1.2), these processors
belong in the same price and performance category. The interest for the user lies in the
fact that he can migrate to a more efficient machine of the family while keeping
compatibility. For a microprocessor, this means that it shares a set of characteristics
such as a base instruction set (i.e. basic) allowing, for example, a backward
compatibility (cf. § V4-3.3.3) of the programs. A generation manipulates the same data
format. The 8-bit generation (cf. § 4.3) can be broken down into three phases, the first
with the 8008, the second with the 8080 and the MC6800 and the MCS6502 and the
third with the 8085, the MC6802 and the Z80. The representatives of the 16-bit
generation microprocessors (cf. § 4.5) were the MC68000 from Motorola, the Z8001
from Zilog and, of course, the 808610 from Intel. They are compared in Heering
(1980). What characterizes the 16-bit generation is the introduction of advanced
memory management (i.e. virtual memory; this will be covered in a future book by the
author on microprocessors), a set of instructions and advanced addressing modes and
parallelism (Whitworth 1980). To this list, we must add the introduction of several
execution modes, mainly user and supervisor modes (cf. § V4-3.2.2). Virtual memory
with its segmentation and paging mechanisms introduces a logical address space (cf. §
2.1.1.1) for the more important programmer, protecting memory and relocating code
and data. The 1980s saw the emergence of multiprocessor systems. This generation
undoubtedly marks the decline of Assembly Language (AL) in favor of High-Level
programming Languages (HLL). The 32-bit generation (cf. § 4.6) appeared with the
MC68020 from Motorola in 1984. The 64-bit generation (cf. § 4.7) appeared in 1991
with the R4000, which had a RISC architecture (this will be covered in a future book
by the author on microprocessors). IEEE (1996) presents testimonies of the
stakeholders of this history. Its new integrated features allow the operating system
architecture to evolve and speed up its operation.

In the beginning, the designer and manufacturer of a microprocessor were identical

with, possibly, one or more second sources that manufactured the component under
license. Take as an example the circuit referenced MC6809 whose designer and
manufacturer was Motorola. There were also second sources such as the French
EFCIS (company which later became SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, then
STMicroelectronics), AMI (American Microsystems, Inc.), Fairchild and Hitachi.
Today, they can be separate, as is the case for the Arm® processor (Advanced RISC
Machines) that the company of the same name, without factory (fabless), licenses to
manufacturers in the form of Intellectual Property (IP) that is, a reusable and

10 It should be noted that the object code of 8085 was not compatible with that of 8088/86.
14 Microprocessor 3

configurable basic brick. We must thus distinguish three trades, which consist of
designing the IP block in itself that which consists of designing a SoC based on IP
blocks and that which is in charge of manufacturing (the founder). Thus, companies
only design components (MIPS as another example), others manufacture the
component like any other integrated circuit and, finally, companies design and
manufacture (designers and founders like Intel, for example). There may also be
components from competing companies compatible in terms of hardware and/or
software (cf. § V4-3.3), Table 1.3 showing an example with the x86 family.
Competitors in this family at the time included the companies Cyrix, AMD and Nec.
As a complement, Hennessy (1984) details the architecture of the VLSI (Very LSI)
microprocessors.

Figure 1.3. Examples of classification of the first main

families of microprocessors (RISC families excluded)
 Basic and Historical Definitions 15

Alternative source type Development required AMD x86 CPU generation

Second source license Manufacturing only 8086 and 80286

Unlicensed CPU clone Reverse engineering 386 and 486

CPU-compatible Original CPU design K5

at pin level (parallel engineering) (with chipset Pentium)
Original CPU
Software-compatible CPU K6 and K7
and chipset designs
Original 64-bit CPU
Upward-compatible CPU K8
and chipset designs

Table 1.3. Hardware and software compatibilities for the x86 family (Halfhill 2009)

1.3. Conclusion

This chapter presented a brief history of the development of microprocessors

by specifying, in particular the different generations of components.