College of Engineering and Architecture

BS Computer Engineering
Microprocessors

3rd
Year

Lecture Notes 1
Introduction to Computer Architecture
Basics of Microprocessors
Instruction sets for Intel processors
Assembly/C++ language programming
Memory organization and memory interfacing
I/O organization and interfacing
Interrupt instruction set drivers interface
Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1
Microprocessors Applications: Systems on chip (SoCs)

An integrated circuit (IC) that integrates all components of a computer or other

electronic system into a single chip

It may contain all on a single chip substrate:

1. Digital functions,
2. Analog functions,
3. Mixed-signal functions,
4. Radio-frequency functions

SoCs are very common in the mobile electronics market because of their low power
consumption.
A typical application is in the area of embedded systems
Use powerful processors and may need external flash/RAM memory

Microprocessors Applications: Systems on chip (SoCs)

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Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1
SoCs: Software-defined Radio & Cognitive Radio

Software defined radios (SDRs):

These radios typically have a radio frequency (RF) front end with a software-
controlled tuner.
Baseband signals are passed into an analog-to digital converter
The quantized baseband is then demodulated in a reconfigurable device such as a
field-programmable gate array (FPGA), digital signal processor (DSP), or commodity
personal computer (PC)
The reconfigurability of the modulation scheme makes it a software-defined radio

Software defined radios (SDRs):

A microcontroller, microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP) core –

multiprocessor SoCs (MPSoC) having more than one processor core
Memory blocks including a selection of ROM, RAM, EEPROM and flash memory
Timing sources including oscillators and phase-locked loops
Peripherals including counter-timers, real-time timers and power-on
reset generators
External interfaces, including industry standards such as USB, FireWire, Ethernet,
USART, SPI
Analog interfaces including ADCs and DACs
Voltage regulators and power management circuits

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Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1
Microprocessors Applications: Microcontrollers

Microcontrollers is a small computer (SoC) on a single integrated circuit containing a

processor core, memory, and programmable input/output peripherals

PIC (Peripheral Interface Controller)

The first parts of the family were

available in 1976
By 2013 the company had shipped
more than twelve billion individual
parts
Capabilities include discrete I/O pins,
ADC and DAC modules, and
communications ports
Microprocessor instructions vary from
about 35 instructions to over 80
instructions

Microcontrollers: Arduino

An open-source platform used for building electronics projects, consisting:

1. Physical programmable circuit board (often referred to as a microcontroller)
2. IDE (Integrated Development Environment software) that runs on your computer,
used to write and upload computer code to the physical board using a USB cable

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 Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1
General Purpose Microprocessor

Powerful processor in terms of speed and system

buses
Intel processors have invaded the personal computer
(PC) market, and almost all desktop
computers/laptops work with an Intel microprocessor
family.

Questions?
What is the structure of a microprocessor?
How to interface a microprocessor with memory
and I/O devices?
How to program the microprocessor to do a
certain job?

Text Book/References

Textbook:
1. The Intel Microprocessors, Architecture, Programming and Interfacing, 8th edition, Barry B. Brey,
Prentice Hall, 2009
2. Assembly Language for x86 processors, 6th edition, K. R. Irvine, Prentice Hall, 2011

References:
1. Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, 5th edition, J. Hennessy, D. Patterson,
Elsevier, 2012.
2. The 80x86 Family, Design, Programming and Interfacing, 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, 2002
3. The 80x86 IBM PC and Compatible Computers, Assembly Language, Design, and Interfacing,
4th edition, M.A. Mazidi and J.G. Mazidi, Prentice Hall, 2003

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 Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1

Lecture Objectives
Draw the block diagram of a computer system
Describe the structure and function of the microprocessor
Provide an overview of the various 80X86 and Pentium family members
Define the contents of the memory system in the personal computer
Convert between binary, decimal, and hexadecimal numbers
Differentiate and represent numeric and alphabetic information as integers, floating-point, BCD,
and ASCII data
Understand basic computer terminology (bit, byte, data, real memory system, protected mode
memory system, Windows, DOS, I/O)

Computer Architecture: Major parts of a Computer System

1. Central Processing Unit (CPU, Microprocessor): acts as the brain coordinating all
activities within a computer
a. data transfer between itself and the memory or I/O systems,
b. (2) simple arithmetic and logic operations
c. program flow via simple decisions
2. The Memory: The program instructions and data are primarily stored.
3. The Input/Output (I/O) Devices:
a. Allow the computer to input information for processing and then output the results.
b. I/O Devices are also known as computer peripherals.

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Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1

Dynamic RAM (DRAM) 8086 Printer

Static RAM (SRAM) 8088 Serial communications
Cache 80186 Floppy disk drive
Read-only (ROM) 80188 Hard disk drive
Flash Memory 80286 Mouse
EEPROM 80386 CD-ROM drive
SDRAM 80486 Plotter
RAMBUS Pentinum Keyboard
DDR DRAM Pentinum Pro Monitor
Pentinum II Tape backup
Pentinum III Scanner
Pentinum 4 DVD
Computer Architecture Core2

Bus: The CPU is connected to memory and I/O devices through a strip of wires called a bus.
The bus inside a computer carries information from place to place.
In every computer there are three types of busses. What are these types?

Main types of Computer Buses

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 Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1
1-Address Bus (Unidirectional)

The address bus is used to identify

the memory location or I/O device the
processor intends to communicate
with
The width of the Address Bus is
determined by the size of the memory
addresses it can locate
20 bits to address 1Mbyte (8086), 36
bits to address 64 GByte (Pentium II)

2- Data Bus (Bidirectional)

Data bus is used by the CPU to get data from / to send data to the memory or the I/O
devices.
The width of data bus determine the data size it can carry
The size of data bus of Intel microprocessors vary [8-bit (8085), 64-bit (Pentium)]

3-Control Bus (Unidirectional)

Tell if the address on the bus is memory address or an I/O device address
Each time the processor outputs an address it also activates one of the four control bus
signals: Memory Read, Memory Write, I/O Read and I/O Write.

How a program is executed inside the MP?

A program stored in the

memory provides
instructions to the CPU
to perform a specific
action. This action can
be a simple addition
It is function of the CPU
to fetch the program
instructions from the
memory to the MP
registers and execute
them.

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 Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1
Example-1: Memory Read

The microprocessor reads the contents

of a memory location by:
1. Sending the memory the desired
memory location through the address
bus
2. Sending the memory read control
signal (Activate 𝑀𝑅𝐷𝐶; 𝑀𝑅𝐷𝐶=0)
3. Finally, the data read from the
memory are passed to the
microprocessor through the data bus

Example-2: Input Output Write

If 𝐼𝑂𝑊𝐶 is active (𝐼𝑂𝑊𝐶=0), then, the microprocessor is writing data from the data bus to an
I/O device whose address appears on the address bus

Main Memory Types: ROM

ROM (Read Only Memory, nonvolatile memory) the information in ROM is permanent and not
lost when the power is turned off

Main Memory Types: RAM (Primary Storage)

RAM (Random Access Memory/ Read-Write memory, volatile memory) is used by the
computer for the temporary storage of the programs that is running. Data is lost when the
computer is turned off.

Secondary Storage: I/O devices

Example: 8085 Intel Microprocessor
Refer to magnetic /optical disks (I/O
devices)

16 bit address bus to select an

address between 64Mbyte memory
8 bit data bus to fetch 8 bits to its
internal registers

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 Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1
Simple Microprocessor Architecture

1. The CPU contains a number of registers to store information inside the CPU
temporarily. Registers inside the CPU can be 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit or even 64-bit
depending on the CPU.

2. The CPU also contains Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU). The ALU performs arithmetic
(add, subtract, multiply, divide) and logic (AND, OR, NOT) functions.

3. The CPU contains a program counter also known as the Instruction Pointer to point
the address of the next instruction to be executed.

4. Instruction Decoder is a kind of dictionary which is used to interpret the meaning of

the instruction fetched into the CPU. Appropriate control signals are generated
according to the meaning of the instruction.

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Microprocessors
Introduction to the Microprocessor and computer
Lecture
Notes 1

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