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A Beginners Guide to Microprocess| Category | | | Summary | | | Body | ::-=A Beginner's Guide to Microprocess=-::
In simplistic terms, a microprocessor is a programmable device which has computing ability. It can be used as the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer, or as a part of an embedded system, or as a stand alone computing unit. The examples of embedded systems which use microprocessors as controllers are washing machines, automobile controls etc.
At the root level, the microprocessor understands only strings of binary numbers 0's and 1's. These binary patterns constitute the machine language of the microprocessor. The disadvantage of programming in machine language is that, we humans are not very comfortable working with such a large and confusing amount of data. Thus came up the concept of assembly language. It is easier to program in assembly rather than in machine language since it consists of abbreviated instructions like ADD (for addition) and JMP (for jumping). But coding in assembly is still a mammoth task compared to coding in higher level languages like C/C++.
Every processor can handle a specific group of bits at a time. This group is called the 'word' and its size is called the 'word length'. Microprocessors are classified according to their word length. A processor having 'n' bit word length is called an 'n' bit processor. Common examples are :-
8 Bit :
Intel 8085
Intel 8008
Motorola MC 6800
Zilog Z80
National Semiconductor NSC 800
Hitachi HD 64180
16 Bit :
Intel 8086/8088
Intel 80186/286
Zilog Z8001/8002
Digital Equipment LSI 11
Motorola 68000
National Semiconductor NS 16000
32 Bit :
Intel 80386
Intel 80486
Zilog Z80000
National Semiconductor NS 32032
Motorola MC 68020
Digital Equipment Alpha 21064
A microprocessor is a multipurpose, programmable device. It is multipurpose in the sense that it can be instructed to perform a wide variety of simple and complex tasks. It is programmable, which means that it is given some input in the form of instructions and it processes the data to give some output. These instructions are stored in a storage area referred to as 'memory'.
The Intel 4004 was the first 4 bit programmable device. Its primary application was calculators. This was replaced by the 8 bit microprocessor, the Intel 8008. In the mid 1970's came the Intel 8080 followed by popular microprocessors such as Motorola 6800, the Zilog Z80 and the Intel 8085.
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~np~Written by Elastic Reality (March 9 2004)~/np~
~np~Member of CAU Knowledge-Bank Tutorial Writers~/np~
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This article was imported from the CyberArmy University site. (original author: PixieLuv)
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