Introduction To

Microprocessors

What is a Microprocessor?
The microprocessor is a digital integrated circuit that
can be programmed with a series of instructions to
perform various operations on data.
One or more typically serve as the CPU in computer
systems, embedded devices, or handheld devices.
Cars, stereos, cell phones, microwaves, and washing
machines all contain microprocessors
The advent of the microprocessor astounded many
people
It was an entire computation engine on one tiny chip
Without this invention, we would not be as
technologically advanced in computers as we have
become today.
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Applications of Microprocessor
Embedded intelligence brought by microprocessors

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Electrical Numerical Integrator And

Calculator (ENIAC)

Electrical Numerical Integrator and

Calculator (ENIAC)
First general-purpose, programmable electronic computer
system developed 1946 at University of Pennsylvania
Built out of:
17,468 vacuum tubes; 500 miles of wires
7,200 crystal diodes
1,500 relays
70,000 resistors
10,000 capacitors
Consumed 150 kW of power; Took up 72 m2; Weighted 27
tons
About 100,000 operations per second.
Suffered a failure on average every 6 hours.
Programmed by rewiring its circuits; process took many
workers several days.
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von Neumann Model

The task of entering and altering programs for the
ENIAC was extremely tedious.
von Neumann published the stored-program concept.
Main memory storing programs and data
ALU operating on binary data
Control unit interpreting instructions from memory and
executing
Input and output equipment operated by control unit

von Neumann Model

The Second Generation:

Transistor
The first major change in the electronic computer came
with the replacement of the vacuum tube by the transistor
December 23, 1947, John Bardeen, William Shockley,
and Walter Brattain developed the transistor at Bell Labs.
The job of microprocessor design is ultimately deciding
how to connect transistors to be able to quickly execute
the commands that run programs.
The story of the first microprocessor is therefore also the
story of the invention of the transistor and the integrated
circuit.
Jack Kilby had constructed the first Integrated Circuit (IC)
(1958).
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The Second Generation:

Transistor
IC led to development of digital integrated circuits in the
1960s.
Three Intel engineers named Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff
and Stan Mazor are said to be the brilliant minds behind
the microprocessor.
First microprocessor developed at Intel Corporation in
November 1971 (Intel 4004).
Device started the microprocessor revolution continued
today at an ever-accelerating pace.
The evolution of microprocessors has been known to
follow Moores Law.
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Moores Law
In 1975, Gordon Moore observed that shrinking
transistor dimensions were allowing the number of
transistors on a die to double roughly every 18 months.
For microprocessors, the trend has been closer to a
doubling every 2 years, but amazingly this exponential
increase has continued now for 30 years
No exponential trend can continue forever, and this
simple fact has led to predictions of the end of Moores
law for decades.
There have already been a number of new fabrication
technologies proposed or put into use that will help
continue Moores law through 2015.
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Moores Law

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Evolution of Microprocessors

Intel 4004: The worlds first microprocessor.

A 4-bit microprocessor-programmable controller on a chip.
Addressed 4096, 4-bit-wide memory locations.
The 4004 instruction set contained 45 instructions
Executed instructions at 50 KIPs (kilo-instructions per
second).
Slow compared to 100,000 instructions per second by 30ton ENIAC computer in 1946
4-bit microprocessor debuted in early game systems and
small control systems.
Main problems with early microprocessor were speed,
word width, and memory size.
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Evolution of Microprocessors
Evolution of 4-bit microprocessor ended when Intel
released the 4040, an updated 4004.
Operated at a higher speed; same word width and
memory size.
Most calculators are still based on 4-bit microprocessors
that process 4-bit BCD (binary-coded decimal) codes.
Intel 8008 microprocessor: First release 1971
The extended 8-bit version of 4004 microprocessor
Addressed expanded memory of 16K bytes.
Contained additional instructions, 48 total.
Provided opportunity for application in more advanced
systems.
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Evolution of Microprocessors
Small memory size, slow speed, and instruction set
limited 8008 usefulness.
Intel 8080 microprocessor: Introduced in 1973.
First of the modern 8-bit microprocessors
Motorola Corporation introduced MC6800 microprocessor
about six months later.
8080 ushered in the age of the microprocessor.
It was used in the first personal computer, the Altair.
Other companies soon introduced their own versions of
the 8-bit microprocessor
Only Intel and Motorola continue to create new, improved
microprocessors.
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Evolution of Microprocessors
8080 addressed four times more memory; 64K bytes vs l6K
bytes for 8008.
Executed additional instructions; 10x faster.
Addition taking 20 s on an 8008-based system required
only 2.0 s on an 8080-based system
TTL compatible; interfacing made easier and less expensive
Intel 8085: Introduced in 1977
An updated version of the 8080.
Last Intel 8-bit general-purpose microprocessor.
Slightly more advanced than 8080; executed software at an
even higher speed; 769,230 instructions per second vs
500,000 per second on the 8080).
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Evolution of Microprocessors
Main advantages of 8085 were its internal clock
generator, internal system controller, and higher clock
frequency.
Higher level of component integration reduced the
8085s cost and increased its usefulness
Intel has sold over 100 million of the 8085.
Applications that contain the 8085 will likely continue to
be popular
Zilog Corporation sold 500 million of their 8-bit Z-80
microprocessors
The Z-80 is machine languagecompatible with the
8085, which means that there are over 700 million
microprocessors execute 8085/Z-80 compatible code.
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The Modern Microprocessor

Intel 8086 & 8088: Introduced in 1978 and 1979
Both devices are 16-bit microprocessors.
Executed instructions at 2.5 millions of instructions per
second
8086 & 8088 addressed 1M byte of memory (16 times
more memory than the 8085).
Higher speed and larger memory size allowed 8086 and
8088 to replace smaller minicomputers in many
applications.
Another feature was a 4- or 6-byte instruction cache or
queue that pre-fetched instructions before they were
executed.
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The Modern Microprocessor

Queue sped operation of many sequences of instruction
and is a basis for the much larger instruction caches
found in modem microprocessors.
Increased memory size and additional instructions in
8086/8088 led to many sophisticated applications.
Improvements to the instruction set included multiply and
divide instructions.
Number of instructions increased (over 20,000 variations
on the 8086/ 8088)
These microprocessors are called CISC (complex
instruction set computers) because of the number and
complexity of instructions.
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The Modern Microprocessor

Additional instructions eased task of developing efficient
and sophisticated applications
16-bit microprocessor also provided more internal
register storage space than the 8-bit microprocessor.
Additional registers allowed software to be written more
efficiently
The 16-bit microprocessor evolved mainly because of
the need for larger memory systems
Popularity of Intel ensured in 1981 when IBM chose the
8088 in its personal computer.
Soon, even the 1M-byte memory system proved limiting
for large databases and other applications.
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The Modern Microprocessor

Intel 80286 microprocessor: An updated 8086
Also a 16-bit architecture microprocessor which was
almost identical to the 8086 and 8088
Addressed 16M-byte memory system instead of a 1Mbyte system
Instruction set almost identical except for a few
additional instructions.
80286 clock speed was increased in 8.0 MHz version.
Executed some instructions in as little as 250 ns (4.0
MIPs)
Some changes to internal execution of instructions led
to eightfold increase in speed for many instructions.
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The 32-Bit Microprocessor

Applications began to demand faster microprocessor
speeds, more memory, and wider data paths.
This led to the Intel 80386 microprocessor in 1986.
Major overhaul of 16-bit 808680286 architecture
Intels first practical microprocessor to contain a 32bit data bus and 32-bit memory address.
Through 32-bit buses, 80386 addressed up to 4G
bytes of memory.
80386SX addressed 16M bytes of memory through a
16-bit data and 24-bit address bus.
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The 32-Bit Microprocessor

80386SL/80386SLC addressed 32M bytes memory via 16bit data, 25-bit address bus.
80386SLC contained an internal cache to process data at
even higher rates.
32-bit microprocessor is needed due to size of its data bus.
Transfers real (single-precision floating-point) numbers that
require 32-bit-wide memory
To process 32-bit real numbers, the microprocessor must
efficiently pass them between itself and memory.
With 8-bit data bus, takes four read or write cycles
Only one read or write cycle is required for 32 bit
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The 32-Bit Microprocessor

This significantly increases speed of any program that
manipulates real numbers
80386 had higher clocking speeds and included a
memory management unit
Earlier microprocessors left memory management
completely to the software
80386 included hardware circuitry for memory
management and assignment which improved efficiency
and reduced software overhead
The instruction set of the 80386 microprocessor was
upward-compatible with the earlier 8086, 8088, and
80286 microprocessors.
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The 32-Bit Microprocessor

Additional instructions referenced 32-bit registers and
managed the memory system
These features allowed older, 16-bit software to operate on
the 80386 microprocessor.
80386 is the first Intel processor to support multitasking
The 80486 Microprocessor: released in 1989 by Intel
Highly integrated package.
80386-like microprocessor & 80387-like numeric coprocessor.
8K-byte cache memory system
Internal structure of 80486 modified so about half of its
instructions executed in one clock instead of two clocks.
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The 32-Bit Microprocessor

Speed improvement of 50% over 80386 operated at
same clock
Double-clocked 80486DX2 executed instructions at
66 MHz, with memory transfers at 33 MHz; called a
double-clocked microprocessor
A triple-clocked version improved speed to 100 MHz
with memory transfers at 33 MHz.
Expanded 16K-byte cache in place of standard 8Kbyte cache
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) produced a tripleclocked version with a bus speed of 40 MHz and a
clock speed of 120 MHz.
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The Pentium Microprocessor

Introduced 1993, Pentium was similar to 80386 and
80486 microprocessors.
With the Pentium, Intel introduced the use of superscalar
techniques, which allow multiple instructions to execute in
parallel.
Introductory versions operated with a clocking frequency
of 60 MHz & 66 MHz, and a speed of 110 MIPs.
Double-clocked Pentium at 120 MHz and 133 MHz, also
available.
Fastest version produced is 233 MHz Pentium which a
three and one-half clocked version
Cache size was increased to 16K bytes from the 8K
cache found in 80486.
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The Pentium Microprocessor

8K-byte instruction cache and an 8K-byte data cache.

Memory system up to 4G bytes.
Data bus width increased to a full 64 bits.
Data bus transfer speed 60 MHz or 66 MHz.
Wider data bus width accommodated double-precision
floating-point numbers used in high-speed, vectorgenerated graphical displays.
Recent Pentium versions also included additional
instructions; multimedia extensions, or MMX instructions

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The Pentium Microprocessor

Pentium Pro Processor: Introduced 1993
21 million transistors, integer units, floating-point unit,
clock frequency 150 and 166 MHz
Internal 16K level-one (L1) cache.
8K data, 8K for instructions
Pentium Pro contains 256K level-two (L2) cache
Pentium Pro uses three execution engines, to execute
up to three instructions at a time.
Pentium Pro can address 4G-byte or a 64G-byte
memory system (has a 36-bit address bus if configured
for a 64G memory system).
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The Pentium Microprocessor

Pentium II: released in1997 represents new direction
for Intel.
Intel has placed Pentium II on a small circuit board,
instead of being an integrated circuit.
This is because L2 cache on main circuit board was
not fast enough to function properly with Pentium II
Microprocessor on the Pentium II module actually
Pentium Pro with MMX extensions.
In 1998 Intel changed Pentium II bus speed.
Newer Pentium II uses a 100 MHz bus speed
Higher speed memory bus requires 8 ns SDRAM.
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The Pentium Microprocessor

Pentium III Microprocessor: Faster core than Pentium
II; still a P6 or Pentium Pro processor
Pentium III available with clock frequencies up to 1 GHz.
Pentium IV: 2000 release faster than Pentium III
Pentium 4 available to 3.2 GHz and faster
Most recent version of Pentium called Core2
New modifications to the Pentium 4 and Core2 that
include a 64-bit core and multiple cores.
The 64-bit modification allows the microprocessor to
address more than 4G bytes of memory through a wider
64-bit address
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The Pentium Microprocessor

Biggest advancement is inclusion of multiple cores.
Each core executes a separate task in a program
Multiple cores are current solution to providing faster
microprocessors.
Currently Used:
Pentium & Celeron dual core
Core 2 Duo - 2 processor cores
Core 2 Quad - 4 processor cores
Core i7 4 processor core

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CISC and RISC

CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer)
It is the traditional architecture of a computer, in
which the CPU uses microcode to execute very
comprehensive instruction set.
These may be variable in length and use all
addressing modes, requiring complex circuitry to
decode them.
Operands can be in registers or memory

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CISC and RISC

RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer)
In RISC, CPUs keep instruction size constant,
disallow the indirect addressing mode and retain only
those instructions that can be overlapped and made
to execute in one machine cycle or less.
Operands are assumed to be in processor registers
One advantage of RISC CPUs is that they can
execute their instructions very fast because the
instructions are so simple.
RISC chips require fewer transistors, which makes
them cheaper to design and produce.
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CISC and RISC

For making the hardware simpler, RISC

architectures put a greater burden on the
software, RISC compilers having to generate
software routines to perform the complex
instructions that are performed in hardware by
CISC computers.
Even the CISC champion, Intel, used RISC
techniques in its 486 chip and has done so
increasingly in its Pentium family of processors.
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CISC and RISC

CISC Complex Instruction Set Computer

Large and complex instruction set

Variable width instructions and use all addressing modes
Requires complex circuitry to decode instructions
Each instruction is decoded into a sequence of microoperations
Example: Intel x86 family

RISC Reduced Instruction Set Computer

Small and simple instruction set

All instructions have the same width
Simpler instruction formats and addressing modes
Decoded and executed directly by hardware
Examples: ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, etc
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