Microprocessor

A microprocessor is a computer processor

where the data processing logic and
control is included on a single integrated
circuit, or a small number of integrated
circuits. The microprocessor contains the
arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry
required to perform the functions of a
computer's central processing unit. The
integrated circuit is capable of interpreting
and executing program instructions and
performing arithmetic operations.[1] The
microprocessor is a multipurpose, clock-
driven, register-based, digital integrated
circuit that accepts binary data as input,
processes it according to instructions
stored in its memory, and provides results
(also in binary form) as output.
Microprocessors contain both
combinational logic and sequential digital
logic, and operate on numbers and
symbols represented in the binary number
system.
Texas Instruments TMS1000

Intel 4004

Motorola 6800 (MC6800)

A modern 64 bit x86-64 processor (AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Based on Zen+, 2017)
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X (2016, based on Zen) processor in a AM4 socket on a motherboard

The integration of a whole CPU onto a

single or a few integrated circuits using
Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) greatly
reduced the cost of processing power.
Integrated circuit processors are produced
in large numbers by highly automated
metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS)
fabrication processes, resulting in a
relatively low unit price. Single-chip
processors increase reliability because
there are much fewer electrical
connections that could fail. As
microprocessor designs improve, the cost
of manufacturing a chip (with smaller
components built on a semiconductor chip
the same size) generally stays the same
according to Rock's law.

Before microprocessors, small computers

had been built using racks of circuit
boards with many medium- and small-
scale integrated circuits, typically of TTL
type. Microprocessors combined this into
one or a few large-scale ICs. While there is
disagreement over who deserves credit for
the invention of the microprocessor, the
first commercially available
microprocessor was the Intel 4004,
designed by Federico Faggin and
introduced in 1971.[2]

Continued increases in microprocessor

capacity have since rendered other forms
of computers almost completely obsolete
(see history of computing hardware), with
one or more microprocessors used in
everything from the smallest embedded
systems and handheld devices to the
largest mainframes and supercomputers.

Structure
A block diagram of the architecture of the Z80 microprocessor, showing the arithmetic and logic section, register file,
control logic section, and buffers to external address and data lines

The complexity of an integrated circuit is

bounded by physical limitations on the
number of transistors that can be put onto
one chip, the number of package
terminations that can connect the
processor to other parts of the system, the
number of interconnections it is possible
to make on the chip, and the heat that the
chip can dissipate. Advancing technology
makes more complex and powerful chips
feasible to manufacture.

A minimal hypothetical microprocessor

might include only an arithmetic logic unit
(ALU), and a control logic section. The ALU
performs addition, subtraction, and
operations such as AND or OR. Each
operation of the ALU sets one or more
flags in a status register, which indicate
the results of the last operation (zero
value, negative number, overflow, or
others). The control logic retrieves
instruction codes from memory and
initiates the sequence of operations
required for the ALU to carry out the
instruction. A single operation code might
affect many individual data paths,
registers, and other elements of the
processor.

As integrated circuit technology advanced,

it was feasible to manufacture more and
more complex processors on a single
chip. The size of data objects became
larger; allowing more transistors on a chip
allowed word sizes to increase from 4- and
8-bit words up to today's 64-bit words.
Additional features were added to the
processor architecture; more on-chip
registers sped up programs, and complex
instructions could be used to make more
compact programs. Floating-point
arithmetic, for example, was often not
available on 8-bit microprocessors, but
had to be carried out in software.
Integration of the floating-point unit, first
as a separate integrated circuit and then
as part of the same microprocessor chip,
sped up floating-point calculations.

Occasionally, physical limitations of

integrated circuits made such practices as
a bit slice approach necessary. Instead of
processing all of a long word on one
integrated circuit, multiple circuits in
parallel processed subsets of each word.
While this required extra logic to handle,
for example, carry and overflow within
each slice, the result was a system that
could handle, for example, 32-bit words
using integrated circuits with a capacity
for only four bits each.

The ability to put large numbers of

transistors on one chip makes it feasible
to integrate memory on the same die as
the processor. This CPU cache has the
advantage of faster access than off-chip
memory and increases the processing
speed of the system for many
applications. Processor clock frequency
has increased more rapidly than external
memory speed, so cache memory is
necessary if the processor is not to be
delayed by slower external memory.

Special-purpose designs

A microprocessor is a general - purpose

entity. Several specialized processing
devices have followed:

A digital signal processor (DSP) is

specialized for signal processing.
Graphics processing units (GPUs) are
processors designed primarily for
realtime rendering of images.
 Other specialized units exist for video
processing and machine vision. (See:
Hardware acceleration.)
Microcontrollers in embedded systems
and peripheral devices.
Systems on chip (SoCs) often integrate
one or more microprocessor and
microcontroller cores with other
components such as radio modems,
and are used in smartphones and tablet
computers.

Speed and power considerations

Intel Core i9-9900K (2018, based on Coffee Lake)

Microprocessors can be selected for

differing applications based on their word
size, which is a measure of their
complexity. Longer word sizes allow each
clock cycle of a processor to carry out
more computation, but correspond to
physically larger integrated circuit dies
with higher standby and operating power
consumption.[3] 4-, 8- or 12-bit processors
are widely integrated into microcontrollers
operating embedded systems. Where a
system is expected to handle larger
volumes of data or require a more flexible
user interface, 16-, 32- or 64-bit processors
are used. An 8- or 16-bit processor may be
selected over a 32-bit processor for
system on a chip or microcontroller
applications that require extremely low-
power electronics, or are part of a mixed-
signal integrated circuit with noise-
sensitive on-chip analog electronics such
as high-resolution analog to digital
converters, or both. Some people say that
running 32-bit arithmetic on an 8-bit chip
could end up using more power, as the
chip must execute software with multiple
instructions.[4] However, others say that
modern 8-bit chips are always more
power-efficient than 32-bit chips when
running equivalent software routines.[5]

Embedded applications
Thousands of items that were traditionally
not computer-related include
microprocessors. These include
household appliances, vehicles (and their
accessories), tools and test instruments,
toys, light switches/dimmers and
electrical circuit breakers, smoke alarms,
battery packs, and hi-fi audio/visual
components (from DVD players to
phonograph turntables). Such products as
cellular telephones, DVD video system and
HDTV broadcast systems fundamentally
require consumer devices with powerful,
low-cost, microprocessors. Increasingly
stringent pollution control standards
effectively require automobile
manufacturers to use microprocessor
engine management systems to allow
optimal control of emissions over the
widely varying operating conditions of an
automobile. Non-programmable controls
would require bulky, or costly
implementation to achieve the results
possible with a microprocessor.
A microprocessor control program
(embedded software) can be tailored to fit
the needs of a product line, allowing
upgrades in performance with minimal
redesign of the product. Unique features
can be implemented in product line's
various models at negligible production
cost.

Microprocessor control of a system can

provide control strategies that would be
impractical to implement using
electromechanical controls or purpose-
built electronic controls. For example, an
internal combustion engine's control
system can adjust ignition timing based
on engine speed, load, temperature, and
any observed tendency for knocking—
allowing the engine to operate on a range
of fuel grades.

History
The advent of low-cost computers on
integrated circuits has transformed
modern society. General-purpose
microprocessors in personal computers
are used for computation, text editing,
multimedia display, and communication
over the Internet. Many more
microprocessors are part of embedded
systems, providing digital control over
myriad objects from appliances to
automobiles to cellular phones and
industrial process control.
Microprocessors perform binary
operations based on boolean logic, named
after George Boole. The ability to operate
computer systems using Boolean Logic
was first proven in a 1938 thesis by
master's student Claude Shannon, who
later went on to become a professor.
Shannon is considered "The Father of
Information Theory".

Following the development of MOS

integrated circuit chips in the early 1960s,
MOS chips reached higher transistor
density and lower manufacturing costs
than bipolar integrated circuits by 1964.
MOS chips further increased in complexity
at a rate predicted by Moore's law, leading
to large-scale integration (LSI) with
hundreds of transistors on a single MOS
chip by the late 1960s. The application of
MOS LSI chips to computing was the basis
for the first microprocessors, as engineers
began recognizing that a complete
computer processor could be contained
on several MOS LSI chips.[6] Designers in
the late 1960s were striving to integrate
the central processing unit (CPU)
functions of a computer onto a handful of
MOS LSI chips, called microprocessor unit
(MPU) chipsets.

While there is disagreement over who

invented the microprocessor,[2] the first
commercially produced microprocessor
was the Intel 4004, released as a single
MOS LSI chip in 1971.[7] The single-chip
microprocessor was made possible with
the development of MOS silicon-gate
technology (SGT).[8] The earliest MOS
transistors had aluminium metal gates,
which Italian physicist Federico Faggin
replaced with silicon self-aligned gates to
develop the first silicon-gate MOS chip at
Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968.[8] Faggin
later joined Intel and used his silicon-gate
MOS technology to develop the 4004,
along with Marcian Hoff, Stanley Mazor
and Masatoshi Shima in 1971.[9] The 4004
was designed for Busicom, which had
earlier proposed a multi-chip design in
1969, before Faggin's team at Intel
changed it into a new single-chip design.
Intel introduced the first commercial
microprocessor, the 4-bit Intel 4004, in
1971. It was soon followed by the 8-bit
microprocessor Intel 8008 in 1972.

Other embedded uses of 4-bit and 8-bit

microprocessors, such as terminals,
printers, various kinds of automation etc.,
followed soon after. Affordable 8-bit
microprocessors with 16-bit addressing
also led to the first general-purpose
microcomputers from the mid-1970s on.

The first use of the term "microprocessor"

is attributed to Viatron Computer
Systems[10] describing the custom
integrated circuit used in their System 21
small computer system announced in
1968.

Since the early 1970s, the increase in

capacity of microprocessors has followed
Moore's law; this originally suggested that
the number of components that can be
fitted onto a chip doubles every year. With
present technology, it is actually every two
years,[11] and as a result Moore later
changed the period to two years.[12]

First projects

These projects delivered a microprocessor

at about the same time: Garrett
AiResearch's Central Air Data Computer
(CADC) (1970), Texas Instruments' TMS
1802NC (September 1971) and Intel's
4004 (November 1971, based on an earlier
1969 Busicom design). Arguably, Four-
Phase Systems AL1 microprocessor was
also delivered in 1969.
Four-Phase Systems AL1 (1969)

The Four-Phase Systems AL1 was an 8-bit

bit slice chip containing eight registers and
an ALU.[13] It was designed by Lee Boysel
in 1969.[14][15][16] At the time, it formed part
of a nine-chip, 24-bit CPU with three AL1s.
It was later called a microprocessor when,
in response to 1990s litigation by Texas
Instruments, Boysel constructed a
demonstration system where a single AL1
formed part of a courtroom demonstration
computer system, together with RAM,
ROM, and an input-output device.[17]

Garrett AiResearch CADC (1970)

In 1968, Garrett AiResearch (who
employed designers Ray Holt and Steve
Geller) was invited to produce a digital
computer to compete with
electromechanical systems then under
development for the main flight control
computer in the US Navy's new F-14
Tomcat fighter. The design was complete
by 1970, and used a MOS-based chipset
as the core CPU. The design was
significantly (approximately 20 times)
smaller and much more reliable than the
mechanical systems it competed against
and was used in all of the early Tomcat
models. This system contained "a 20-bit,
pipelined, parallel multi-microprocessor".
The Navy refused to allow publication of
the design until 1997. Released in 1998,
the documentation on the CADC, and the
MP944 chipset, are well known. Ray Holt's
autobiographical story of this design and
development is presented in the book: The
Accidental Engineer.[18][19]

Ray Holt graduated from California

Polytechnic University in 1968, and began
his computer design career with the CADC.
From its inception, it was shrouded in
secrecy until 1998 when at Holt's request,
the US Navy allowed the documents into
the public domain. Holt has claimed that
no one has compared this microprocessor
with those that came later.[20] According to
Parab et al. (2007),

The scientific papers and

literature published around
1971 reveal that the MP944
digital processor used for the F-
14 Tomcat aircraft of the US
Navy qualifies as the first
microprocessor. Although
interesting, it was not a single-
chip processor, as was not the
Intel 4004 – they both were
more like a set of parallel
building blocks you could use to
make a general-purpose form. It
contains a CPU, RAM, ROM, and
two other support chips like the
Intel 4004. It was made from the
same P-channel technology,
operated at military
specifications and had larger
chips – an excellent computer
engineering design by any
standards. Its design indicates a
major advance over Intel, and
two year earlier. It actually
worked and was flying in the F-
14 when the Intel 4004 was
 announced. It indicates that
today's industry theme of
converging DSP-microcontroller
architectures was started in
1971.[21]

This convergence of DSP and

microcontroller architectures is known as
a digital signal controller.[22]

Gilbert Hyatt (1970)

In 1990, American engineer Gilbert Hyatt

was awarded U.S. Patent No. 4,942,516,[23]
which was based on a 16-bit serial
computer he built at his Northridge,
California home in 1969 from boards of
bipolar chips after quitting his job at
Teledyne in 1968;[2][24] though the patent
had been submitted in December 1970
and prior to Texas Instruments' filings for
the TMX 1795 and TMS 0100, Hyatt's
invention was never
manufactured.[24][25][26] This nonetheless
led to claims that Hyatt was the inventor
of the microprocessor and the payment of
substantial royalties through a Philips N.V.
subsidiary,[27] until Texas Instruments
prevailed in a complex legal battle in 1996,
when the U.S. Patent Office overturned key
parts of the patent, while allowing Hyatt to
keep it.[2][28] Hyatt said in a 1990 Los
Angeles Times article that his invention
would have been created had his
prospective investors backed him, and that
the venture investors leaked details of his
chip to the industry, though he did not
elaborate with evidence to support this
claim.[24] In the same article, The Chip
author T.R. Reid was quoted as saying that
historians may ultimately place Hyatt as a
co-inventor of the microprocessor, in the
way that Intel's Noyce and TI's Kilby share
credit for the invention of the chip in 1958:
"Kilby got the idea first, but Noyce made it
practical. The legal ruling finally favored
Noyce, but they are considered co-
inventors. The same could happen
here."[24] Hyatt would go on to fight a
decades-long legal battle with the state of
California over alleged unpaid taxes on his
patent's windfall after 1990, which would
culminate in a landmark Supreme Court
case addressing states' sovereign
immunity in Franchise Tax Board of
California v. Hyatt (2019).

Texas Instruments TMX 1795 (1970-

1971)

Along with Intel (who developed the 8008),

Texas Instruments developed in 1970–
1971 a one-chip CPU replacement for the
Datapoint 2200 terminal, the TMX 1795
(later TMC 1795.) Like the 8008, it was
rejected by customer Datapoint. According
to Gary Boone, the TMX 1795 never
reached production. Since it was built to
the same specification, its instruction set
was very similar to the Intel 8008.[29][30]

Texas Instruments TMS 1802NC (1971)

The TMS1802NC was announced

September 17, 1971, and implemented a
four-function calculator. The TMS1802NC,
despite its designation, was not part of the
TMS 1000 series; it was later redesignated
as part of the TMS 0100 series, which was
used in the TI Datamath calculator.
Although marketed as a calculator-on-a-
chip, the TMS1802NC was fully
programmable, including on the chip a
CPU with an 11-bit instruction word, 3520
bits (320 instructions) of ROM and 182
bits of RAM.[29][31][30][32]

Pico/General Instrument (1971)

The PICO1/GI250 chip introduced in 1971: It was designed by Pico Electronics (Glenrothes, Scotland) and manufactured
by General Instrument of Hicksville NY.
In 1971, Pico Electronics[33] and General
Instrument (GI) introduced their first
collaboration in ICs, a complete single-chip
calculator IC for the Monroe/Litton Royal
Digital III calculator. This chip could also
arguably lay claim to be one of the first
microprocessors or microcontrollers
having ROM, RAM and a RISC instruction
set on-chip. The layout for the four layers
of the PMOS process was hand drawn at
x500 scale on mylar film, a significant task
at the time given the complexity of the
chip.

Pico was a spinout by five GI design

engineers whose vision was to create
single-chip calculator ICs. They had
significant previous design experience on
multiple calculator chipsets with both GI
and Marconi-Elliott.[34] The key team
members had originally been tasked by
Elliott Automation to create an 8-bit
computer in MOS and had helped
establish a MOS Research Laboratory in
Glenrothes, Scotland in 1967.

Calculators were becoming the largest

single market for semiconductors so Pico
and GI went on to have significant success
in this burgeoning market. GI continued to
innovate in microprocessors and
microcontrollers with products including
the CP1600, IOB1680 and PIC1650.[35] In
1987, the GI Microelectronics business
was spun out into the Microchip PIC
microcontroller business.

Intel 4004 (1971)

The 4004 with cover removed (left) and as actually used (right)

The Intel 4004 is often (falsely) regarded

as the first true microprocessor built on a
single chip,[36][37] priced at US$60
(equivalent to $400 in 2021).[38] The claim
of being the first is definetely false, as the
earlier TMS1802NC was also a true
microprocessor built on a single chip. The
first known advertisement for the 4004 is
dated November 15, 1971 and appeared in
Electronic News. The microprocessor was
designed by a team consisting of Italian
engineer Federico Faggin, American
engineers Marcian Hoff and Stanley
Mazor, and Japanese engineer Masatoshi
Shima.[39]

The project that produced the 4004

originated in 1969, when Busicom, a
Japanese calculator manufacturer, asked
Intel to build a chipset for high-
performance desktop calculators.
Busicom's original design called for a
programmable chip set consisting of
seven different chips. Three of the chips
were to make a special-purpose CPU with
its program stored in ROM and its data
stored in shift register read-write memory.
Ted Hoff, the Intel engineer assigned to
evaluate the project, believed the Busicom
design could be simplified by using
dynamic RAM storage for data, rather than
shift register memory, and a more
traditional general-purpose CPU
architecture. Hoff came up with a four-
chip architectural proposal: a ROM chip for
storing the programs, a dynamic RAM chip
for storing data, a simple I/O device, and a
4-bit central processing unit (CPU).
Although not a chip designer, he felt the
CPU could be integrated into a single chip,
but as he lacked the technical know-how
the idea remained just a wish for the time
being.

First microprocessor by Intel, the 4004

While the architecture and specifications

of the MCS-4 came from the interaction of
Hoff with Stanley Mazor, a software
engineer reporting to him, and with
Busicom engineer Masatoshi Shima,
during 1969, Mazor and Hoff moved on to
other projects. In April 1970, Intel hired
Italian engineer Federico Faggin as project
leader, a move that ultimately made the
single-chip CPU final design a reality
(Shima meanwhile designed the Busicom
calculator firmware and assisted Faggin
during the first six months of the
implementation). Faggin, who originally
developed the silicon gate technology
(SGT) in 1968 at Fairchild
Semiconductor[40] and designed the
world's first commercial integrated circuit
using SGT, the Fairchild 3708, had the
correct background to lead the project into
what would become the first commercial
general purpose microprocessor. Since
SGT was his very own invention, Faggin
also used it to create his new methodology
for random logic design that made it
possible to implement a single-chip CPU
with the proper speed, power dissipation
and cost. The manager of Intel's MOS
Design Department was Leslie L. Vadász
at the time of the MCS-4 development but
Vadász's attention was completely
focused on the mainstream business of
semiconductor memories so he left the
leadership and the management of the
MCS-4 project to Faggin, who was
ultimately responsible for leading the 4004
project to its realization. Production units
of the 4004 were first delivered to Busicom
in March 1971 and shipped to other
customers in late 1971.

8-bit designs

The Intel 4004 was followed in 1972 by the

Intel 8008, the world's first 8-bit
microprocessor.[41] The 8008 was not,
however, an extension of the 4004 design,
but instead the culmination of a separate
design project at Intel, arising from a
contract with Computer Terminals
Corporation, of San Antonio TX, for a chip
for a terminal they were designing,[42] the
Datapoint 2200—fundamental aspects of
the design came not from Intel but from
CTC. In 1968, CTC's Vic Poor and Harry
Pyle developed the original design for the
instruction set and operation of the
processor. In 1969, CTC contracted two
companies, Intel and Texas Instruments,
to make a single-chip implementation,
known as the CTC 1201.[43] In late 1970 or
early 1971, TI dropped out being unable to
make a reliable part. In 1970, with Intel yet
to deliver the part, CTC opted to use their
own implementation in the Datapoint
2200, using traditional TTL logic instead
(thus the first machine to run "8008 code"
was not in fact a microprocessor at all and
was delivered a year earlier). Intel's version
of the 1201 microprocessor arrived in late
1971, but was too late, slow, and required
a number of additional support chips. CTC
had no interest in using it. CTC had
originally contracted Intel for the chip, and
would have owed them US$50,000
(equivalent to $334,552 in 2021) for their
design work.[43] To avoid paying for a chip
they did not want (and could not use), CTC
released Intel from their contract and
allowed them free use of the design.[43]
Intel marketed it as the 8008 in April, 1972,
as the world's first 8-bit microprocessor. It
was the basis for the famous "Mark-8"
computer kit advertised in the magazine
Radio-Electronics in 1974. This processor
had an 8-bit data bus and a 14-bit address
bus.[44]

The 8008 was the precursor to the

successful Intel 8080 (1974), which
offered improved performance over the
8008 and required fewer support chips.
Federico Faggin conceived and designed it
using high voltage N channel MOS. The
Zilog Z80 (1976) was also a Faggin
design, using low voltage N channel with
depletion load and derivative Intel 8-bit
processors: all designed with the
methodology Faggin created for the 4004.
Motorola released the competing 6800 in
August 1974, and the similar MOS
Technology 6502 was released in 1975
(both designed largely by the same
people). The 6502 family rivaled the Z80 in
popularity during the 1980s.

A low overall cost, little packaging, simple

computer bus requirements, and
sometimes the integration of extra
circuitry (e.g. the Z80's built-in memory
refresh circuitry) allowed the home
computer "revolution" to accelerate sharply
in the early 1980s. This delivered such
inexpensive machines as the Sinclair
ZX81, which sold for US$99 (equivalent to
$295.08 in 2021). A variation of the 6502,
the MOS Technology 6510 was used in the
Commodore 64 and yet another variant,
the 8502, powered the Commodore 128.

The Western Design Center, Inc (WDC)

introduced the CMOS WDC 65C02 in 1982
and licensed the design to several firms. It
was used as the CPU in the Apple IIe and
IIc personal computers as well as in
medical implantable grade pacemakers
and defibrillators, automotive, industrial
and consumer devices. WDC pioneered
the licensing of microprocessor designs,
later followed by ARM (32-bit) and other
microprocessor intellectual property (IP)
providers in the 1990s.

Motorola introduced the MC6809 in 1978.

It was an ambitious and well thought-
through 8-bit design that was source
compatible with the 6800, and
implemented using purely hard-wired logic
(subsequent 16-bit microprocessors
typically used microcode to some extent,
as CISC design requirements were
becoming too complex for pure hard-wired
logic).

Another early 8-bit microprocessor was

the Signetics 2650, which enjoyed a brief
surge of interest due to its innovative and
powerful instruction set architecture.

A seminal microprocessor in the world of

spaceflight was RCA's RCA 1802 (aka
CDP1802, RCA COSMAC) (introduced in
1976), which was used on board the
Galileo probe to Jupiter (launched 1989,
arrived 1995). RCA COSMAC was the first
to implement CMOS technology. The
CDP1802 was used because it could be
run at very low power, and because a
variant was available fabricated using a
special production process, silicon on
sapphire (SOS), which provided much
better protection against cosmic radiation
and electrostatic discharge than that of
any other processor of the era. Thus, the
SOS version of the 1802 was said to be the
first radiation-hardened microprocessor.

The RCA 1802 had a static design,

meaning that the clock frequency could be
made arbitrarily low, or even stopped. This
let the Galileo spacecraft use minimum
electric power for long uneventful
stretches of a voyage. Timers or sensors
would awaken the processor in time for
important tasks, such as navigation
updates, attitude control, data acquisition,
and radio communication. Current
versions of the Western Design Center
65C02 and 65C816 also have static cores,
and thus retain data even when the clock
is completely halted.

12-bit designs

The Intersil 6100 family consisted of a 12-

bit microprocessor (the 6100) and a range
of peripheral support and memory ICs. The
microprocessor recognised the DEC PDP-8
minicomputer instruction set. As such it
was sometimes referred to as the CMOS-
PDP8. Since it was also produced by
Harris Corporation, it was also known as
the Harris HM-6100. By virtue of its CMOS
technology and associated benefits, the
6100 was being incorporated into some
military designs until the early 1980s.

16-bit designs

The first multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor

was the National Semiconductor IMP-16,
introduced in early 1973. An 8-bit version
of the chipset was introduced in 1974 as
the IMP-8.

Other early multi-chip 16-bit

microprocessors include the MCP-1600
that Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
used in the LSI-11 OEM board set and the
packaged PDP-11/03 minicomputer—and
the Fairchild Semiconductor MicroFlame
9440, both introduced in 1975–76. In late
1974, National introduced the first 16-bit
single-chip microprocessor, the National
Semiconductor PACE,[45] which was later
followed by an NMOS version, the
INS8900.

Next in list is the General Instrument

CP1600, released in February 1975,[46]
which was used mainly in the Intellivision
console.

Another early single-chip 16-bit

microprocessor was TI's TMS 9900, which
was also compatible with their TI-990 line
of minicomputers. The 9900 was used in
the TI 990/4 minicomputer, the TI-99/4A
home computer, and the TM990 line of
OEM microcomputer boards. The chip was
packaged in a large ceramic 64-pin DIP
package, while most 8-bit
microprocessors such as the Intel 8080
used the more common, smaller, and less
expensive plastic 40-pin DIP. A follow-on
chip, the TMS 9980, was designed to
compete with the Intel 8080, had the full TI
990 16-bit instruction set, used a plastic
40-pin package, moved data 8 bits at a
time, but could only address 16 KB. A third
chip, the TMS 9995, was a new design.
The family later expanded to include the
99105 and 99110.

The Western Design Center (WDC)

introduced the CMOS 65816 16-bit
upgrade of the WDC CMOS 65C02 in 1984.
The 65816 16-bit microprocessor was the
core of the Apple IIGS and later the Super
Nintendo Entertainment System, making it
one of the most popular 16-bit designs of
all time.

Intel "upsized" their 8080 design into the

16-bit Intel 8086, the first member of the
x86 family, which powers most modern PC
type computers. Intel introduced the 8086
as a cost-effective way of porting software
from the 8080 lines, and succeeded in
winning much business on that premise.
The 8088, a version of the 8086 that used
an 8-bit external data bus, was the
microprocessor in the first IBM PC. Intel
then released the 80186 and 80188, the
80286 and, in 1985, the 32-bit 80386,
cementing their PC market dominance
with the processor family's backwards
compatibility. The 80186 and 80188 were
essentially versions of the 8086 and 8088,
enhanced with some onboard peripherals
and a few new instructions. Although
Intel's 80186 and 80188 were not used in
IBM PC type designs, second source
versions from NEC, the V20 and V30
frequently were. The 8086 and successors
had an innovative but limited method of
memory segmentation, while the 80286
introduced a full-featured segmented
memory management unit (MMU). The
80386 introduced a flat 32-bit memory
model with paged memory management.

The 16-bit Intel x86 processors up to and

including the 80386 do not include
floating-point units (FPUs). Intel
introduced the 8087, 80187, 80287 and
80387 math coprocessors to add
hardware floating-point and
transcendental function capabilities to the
8086 through 80386 CPUs. The 8087
works with the 8086/8088 and
80186/80188,[47] the 80187 works with the
80186 but not the 80188,[48] the 80287
works with the 80286 and the 80387
works with the 80386. The combination of
an x86 CPU and an x87 coprocessor forms
a single multi-chip microprocessor; the
two chips are programmed as a unit using
a single integrated instruction set.[49] The
8087 and 80187 coprocessors are
connected in parallel with the data and
address buses of their parent processor
and directly execute instructions intended
for them. The 80287 and 80387
coprocessors are interfaced to the CPU
through I/O ports in the CPU's address
space, this is transparent to the program,
which does not need to know about or
access these I/O ports directly; the
program accesses the coprocessor and its
registers through normal instruction
opcodes.

32-bit designs

Upper interconnect layers on an Intel 80486DX2 die

16-bit designs had only been on the
market briefly when 32-bit
implementations started to appear.

The most significant of the 32-bit designs

is the Motorola MC68000, introduced in
1979. The 68k, as it was widely known,
had 32-bit registers in its programming
model but used 16-bit internal data paths,
three 16-bit Arithmetic Logic Units, and a
16-bit external data bus (to reduce pin
count), and externally supported only 24-
bit addresses (internally it worked with full
32 bit addresses). In PC-based IBM-
compatible mainframes the MC68000
internal microcode was modified to
emulate the 32-bit System/370 IBM
mainframe.[50] Motorola generally
described it as a 16-bit processor. The
combination of high performance, large
(16 megabytes or 224 bytes) memory
space and fairly low cost made it the most
popular CPU design of its class. The Apple
Lisa and Macintosh designs made use of
the 68000, as did a host of other designs
in the mid-1980s, including the Atari ST
and Commodore Amiga.

The world's first single-chip fully 32-bit

microprocessor, with 32-bit data paths, 32-
bit buses, and 32-bit addresses, was the
AT&T Bell Labs BELLMAC-32A, with first
samples in 1980, and general production
in 1982.[51][52] After the divestiture of AT&T
in 1984, it was renamed the WE 32000
(WE for Western Electric), and had two
follow-on generations, the WE 32100 and
WE 32200. These microprocessors were
used in the AT&T 3B5 and 3B15
minicomputers; in the 3B2, the world's first
desktop super microcomputer; in the
"Companion", the world's first 32-bit laptop
computer; and in "Alexander", the world's
first book-sized super microcomputer,
featuring ROM-pack memory cartridges
similar to today's gaming consoles. All
these systems ran the UNIX System V
operating system.
The first commercial, single chip, fully 32-
bit microprocessor available on the market
was the HP FOCUS.

Intel's first 32-bit microprocessor was the

iAPX 432, which was introduced in 1981,
but was not a commercial success. It had
an advanced capability-based object-
oriented architecture, but poor
performance compared to contemporary
architectures such as Intel's own 80286
(introduced 1982), which was almost four
times as fast on typical benchmark tests.
However, the results for the iAPX432 was
partly due to a rushed and therefore
suboptimal Ada compiler.
Motorola's success with the 68000 led to
the MC68010, which added virtual memory
support. The MC68020, introduced in 1984
added full 32-bit data and address buses.
The 68020 became hugely popular in the
Unix supermicrocomputer market, and
many small companies (e.g., Altos,
Charles River Data Systems, Cromemco)
produced desktop-size systems. The
MC68030 was introduced next, improving
upon the previous design by integrating
the MMU into the chip. The continued
success led to the MC68040, which
included an FPU for better math
performance. The 68050 failed to achieve
its performance goals and was not
released, and the follow-up MC68060 was
released into a market saturated by much
faster RISC designs. The 68k family faded
from use in the early 1990s.

Other large companies designed the

68020 and follow-ons into embedded
equipment. At one point, there were more
68020s in embedded equipment than
there were Intel Pentiums in PCs.[53] The
ColdFire processor cores are derivatives of
the 68020.

During this time (early to mid-1980s),

National Semiconductor introduced a very
similar 16-bit pinout, 32-bit internal
microprocessor called the NS 16032 (later
renamed 32016), the full 32-bit version
named the NS 32032. Later, National
Semiconductor produced the NS 32132,
which allowed two CPUs to reside on the
same memory bus with built in arbitration.
The NS32016/32 outperformed the
MC68000/10, but the NS32332—which
arrived at approximately the same time as
the MC68020—did not have enough
performance. The third generation chip,
the NS32532, was different. It had about
double the performance of the MC68030,
which was released around the same time.
The appearance of RISC processors like
the AM29000 and MC88000 (now both
dead) influenced the architecture of the
final core, the NS32764. Technically
advanced—with a superscalar RISC core,
64-bit bus, and internally overclocked—it
could still execute Series 32000
instructions through real-time translation.

When National Semiconductor decided to

leave the Unix market, the chip was
redesigned into the Swordfish Embedded
processor with a set of on-chip
peripherals. The chip turned out to be too
expensive for the laser printer market and
was killed. The design team went to Intel
and there designed the Pentium processor,
which is very similar to the NS32764 core
internally. The big success of the Series
32000 was in the laser printer market,
where the NS32CG16 with microcoded
BitBlt instructions had very good
price/performance and was adopted by
large companies like Canon. By the mid-
1980s, Sequent introduced the first SMP
server-class computer using the NS
32032. This was one of the design's few
wins, and it disappeared in the late 1980s.
The MIPS R2000 (1984) and R3000 (1989)
were highly successful 32-bit RISC
microprocessors. They were used in high-
end workstations and servers by SGI,
among others. Other designs included the
Zilog Z80000, which arrived too late to
market to stand a chance and disappeared
quickly.

The ARM first appeared in 1985.[54] This is

a RISC processor design, which has since
come to dominate the 32-bit embedded
systems processor space due in large part
to its power efficiency, its licensing model,
and its wide selection of system
development tools. Semiconductor
manufacturers generally license cores and
integrate them into their own system on a
chip products; only a few such vendors
such as Apple are licensed to modify the
ARM cores or create their own. Most cell
phones include an ARM processor, as do a
wide variety of other products. There are
microcontroller-oriented ARM cores
without virtual memory support, as well as
symmetric multiprocessor (SMP)
applications processors with virtual
memory.

From 1993 to 2003, the 32-bit x86

architectures became increasingly
dominant in desktop, laptop, and server
markets, and these microprocessors
became faster and more capable. Intel had
licensed early versions of the architecture
to other companies, but declined to
license the Pentium, so AMD and Cyrix
built later versions of the architecture
based on their own designs. During this
span, these processors increased in
complexity (transistor count) and
capability (instructions/second) by at least
three orders of magnitude. Intel's Pentium
line is probably the most famous and
recognizable 32-bit processor model, at
least with the public at broad.

64-bit designs in personal computers

While 64-bit microprocessor designs have

been in use in several markets since the
early 1990s (including the Nintendo 64
gaming console in 1996), the early 2000s
saw the introduction of 64-bit
microprocessors targeted at the PC
market.

With AMD's introduction of a 64-bit

architecture backwards-compatible with
x86, x86-64 (also called AMD64), in
September 2003, followed by Intel's near
fully compatible 64-bit extensions (first
called IA-32e or EM64T, later renamed
Intel 64), the 64-bit desktop era began.
Both versions can run 32-bit legacy
applications without any performance
penalty as well as new 64-bit software.
With operating systems Windows XP x64,
Windows Vista x64, Windows 7 x64, Linux,
BSD, and macOS that run 64-bit natively,
the software is also geared to fully utilize
the capabilities of such processors. The
move to 64 bits is more than just an
increase in register size from the IA-32 as
it also doubles the number of general-
purpose registers.

The move to 64 bits by PowerPC had been

intended since the architecture's design in
the early 90s and was not a major cause
of incompatibility. Existing integer
registers are extended as are all related
data pathways, but, as was the case with
IA-32, both floating-point and vector units
had been operating at or above 64 bits for
several years. Unlike what happened when
IA-32 was extended to x86-64, no new
general purpose registers were added in
64-bit PowerPC, so any performance
gained when using the 64-bit mode for
applications making no use of the larger
address space is minimal.

In 2011, ARM introduced the new 64-bit

ARM architecture.

RISC

In the mid-1980s to early 1990s, a crop of

new high-performance reduced instruction
set computer (RISC) microprocessors
appeared, influenced by discrete RISC-like
CPU designs such as the IBM 801 and
others. RISC microprocessors were initially
used in special-purpose machines and
Unix workstations, but then gained wide
acceptance in other roles.

The first commercial RISC microprocessor

design was released in 1984, by MIPS
Computer Systems, the 32-bit R2000 (the
R1000 was not released). In 1986, HP
released its first system with a PA-RISC
CPU. In 1987, in the non-Unix Acorn
computers' 32-bit, then cache-less, ARM2-
based Acorn Archimedes became the first
commercial success using the ARM
architecture, then known as Acorn RISC
Machine (ARM); first silicon ARM1 in 1985.
The R3000 made the design truly practical,
and the R4000 introduced the world's first
commercially available 64-bit RISC
microprocessor. Competing projects
would result in the IBM POWER and Sun
SPARC architectures. Soon every major
vendor was releasing a RISC design,
including the AT&T CRISP, AMD 29000,
Intel i860 and Intel i960, Motorola 88000,
DEC Alpha.

In the late 1990s, only two 64-bit RISC

architectures were still produced in
volume for non-embedded applications:
SPARC and Power ISA, but as ARM has
become increasingly powerful, in the early
2010s, it became the third RISC
architecture in the general computing
segment.

SMP and multi-core design

ABIT BP6 motherboard supported two Intel Celeron 366Mhz processors picture shows Zalman heatsinks.
Abit BP6 dual-socket Motherboard shown with Zalman Flower heatsinks.

SMP symmetric multiprocessing[55] is a

configuration of two, four, or more CPU's
(in pairs) that are typically used in servers,
certain workstations and in desktop
personal computers, since the 1990s. A
multi-core processor is a single CPU that
contains more than one microprocessor
core.

This popular two-socket motherboard

from Abit was released in 1999 as the first
SMP enabled PC motherboard, the Intel
Pentium Pro was the first commercial CPU
offered to system builders and
enthusiasts. The Abit BP9 supports two
Intel Celeron CPU's and when used with a
SMP enabled operating system (Windows
NT/2000/Linux) many applications obtain
much higher performance than a single
CPU. The early Celerons are easily
overclockable and hobbyists used these
relatively inexpensive CPU's clocked as
high as 533Mhz - far beyond Intel's
specification. After discovering the
capacity of these motherboards Intel
removed access to the multiplier in later
CPU's.
In 2001 IBM released the POWER4 CPU, it
was a processor that was developed over
five years of research, began in 1996 using
a team of 250 researchers. The effort to
accomplish the impossible was buttressed
by development of and through—remote-
collaboration and assigning younger
engineers to work with more experienced
engineers. The teams work achieved
success with the new microprocessor,
Power4. It is a two-in-one CPU that more
than doubled performance at half the price
of the competition, and a major advance in
computing. The business magazine eWeek
wrote: “The newly designed 1GHz Power4
represents a tremendous leap over its
predecessor”. An industry analyst, Brad
Day of Giga Information Group said: “IBM
is getting very aggressive, and this server is
a game changer”.

The Power4 won "Analysts’ Choice Award

for Best Workstation/Server Processor of
2001", and it broke notable records,
including winning a contest against the
best players on the Jeopardy![56] U.S.
television show.

Intel's codename Yonah CPU's launched

on Jan 6, 2006 and were manufactured
with two dies packaged on a multi-chip
module. In a hotly-contested marketplace
AMD and others released new versions of
multi-core CPU's, AMD's SMP enabled
Athlon MP CPU's from the AthlonXP line in
2001, Sun released the Niagara and
Niagara 2 with eight-cores, AMD's Athlon
X2 was released in June 2007. The
companies were engaged in a never-
ending race for speed, indeed more
demanding software mandated more
processing power and faster CPU speeds.

By 2012 dual and quad-core processors

became widely used in PCs and laptops,
newer processors - similar to the higher
cost professional level Intel Xeon's - with
additional cores that execute instructions
in parallel so software performance
typically increases, provided the software
is designed to utilize advanced hardware.
Operating systems provided support for
multiple-cores and SMD CPU's, many
software applications including large
workload and resource intensive
applications - such as 3-D games - are
programmed to take advantage of multiple
core and multi-CPU systems.

Apple, Intel, and AMD currently lead the

market with multiple core desktop and
workstation CPU's. Although they
frequently hip-hop each other for the lead
in the performance tier. Intel retains higher
frequencies and thus has the fastest
single core performance, while AMD is
often the leader in multi-threaded routines
due to a more advanced ISA and the
process node the CPU's are fabricated on.

Multiprocessing concepts for multi-

core/multi-cpu configurations are related
to Amdahl's law.

Market statistics
In 1997, about 55% of all CPUs sold in the
world were 8-bit microcontrollers, of which
over 2 billion were sold.[57]
In 2002, less than 10% of all the CPUs sold
in the world were 32-bit or more. Of all the
32-bit CPUs sold, about 2% are used in
desktop or laptop personal computers.
Most microprocessors are used in
embedded control applications such as
household appliances, automobiles, and
computer peripherals. Taken as a whole,
the average price for a microprocessor,
microcontroller, or DSP is just over US$6
(equivalent to $9.04 in 2021).[58]

In 2003, about $44 billion (equivalent to

about $65 billion in 2021) worth of
microprocessors were manufactured and
sold.[59] Although about half of that money
was spent on CPUs used in desktop or
laptop personal computers, those count
for only about 2% of all CPUs sold.[58] The
quality-adjusted price of laptop
microprocessors improved −25% to −35%
per year in 2004–2010, and the rate of
improvement slowed to −15% to −25% per
year in 2010–2013.[60]

About 10 billion CPUs were manufactured

in 2008. Most new CPUs produced each
year are embedded.[61]

See also
Comparison of instruction set
architectures
 Computer architecture
Computer engineering
List of microprocessors
Microarchitecture
Microprocessor chronology

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References
Ray, A. K.; Bhurchand, K.M. Advanced
Microprocessors and Peripherals. India: Tata
McGraw-Hill.
External links
Wikiversity has learning resources
about Introduction to
Computers/Processor
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Microprocessors.

Patent problems (https://web.archive.or

g/web/20140502002437/http://wikipcp
edia.com/pc-moments-33-the-micropro
cessor-1971/)
Dirk Oppelt. "The CPU Collection" (http://
www.cpu-collection.de/) . Retrieved
23 December 2009.
Gennadiy Shvets. "CPU-World" (http://w
ww.cpu-world.com/) . Retrieved
23 December 2009.
Jérôme Cremet. "The Gecko's CPU
Library" (http://gecko54000.free.fr/) .
Retrieved 23 December 2009.
"How Microprocessors Work" (http://co
mputer.howstuffworks.com/microproce
ssor.htm) . April 2000. Retrieved
23 December 2009.
William Blair. "IC Die Photography" (htt
p://diephotos.blogspot.com/) .
Retrieved 23 December 2009.
John Bayko (December 2003). "Great
Microprocessors of the Past and
Present" (https://archive.today/2013041
5225040/http://www.takisnet.org/~jbay
ko/cpu/cpu.html) . Archived from the
original (http://www.takisnet.org/~jbayk
o/cpu/cpu.html) on 15 April 2013.
Retrieved 23 December 2009.
Wade Warner (22 December 2004).
"Great moments in microprocessor
history" (https://www.ibm.com/develope
rworks/library/pa-microhist/) . IBM.
Retrieved 7 March 2013.
Arthur Daemmrich and Sharon Klotz (12
December 2019). "Gilbert Hyatt" (https://
www.si.edu/media/NMAH/NMAH-AC15
04-Hyatt_Gil_Oral_History_transcript_FIN
AL.pdf) (PDF). Smithsonian Institution.
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Microprocessor&oldid=1135793232"

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