Assignment on Microprocessors in aspect of Computer hardware

Microprocessor in aspect of Computer hardware

A computer has many hardware parts; microprocessor is the most import part of computer hardware. It actions same as the computer’s brain. It is the controlling unit of a computer. It is made up of transistors. Transistors are made from silicon, which is a semi-conductor. It can act as a conductor or an insulator depending on different factors. Transistors are capable of storing a limit amount of electric power in them and they have either on or off state. It is a single integrated circuit (IC). It is multipurpose as it controls all the operators of a computer. It has clock which calculated how many single instructions it can perform in a second. The higher the clock frequency the greater number of instructions a microprocessor can execute in a second. Microprocessor accepts data in binary format, process the data rendering to the set of the instruction which stored in memory and output the data in form of binary data. The microprocessor has fixed word size e.g. the current microcomputers generally store data as 64-bit word size plus microprocessor also fixed address bus size, which represents the maximum physical memory (RAM) it can support (Psarakis & et al, 2010).

History of microprocessors in aspect of Computer hardware

The earliest microprocessor was developed in the early . , INTEL created first microprocessor named 4004. It ran at a clock hustle of  whereas word size of only 4 bits. It wasn’t of much practical use. The 2^nd generation of processors started with Intel 8008 which was the first 8-bit microprocessor. It was developed in 1972. It was quickly trailed by Intel  which was also an . It was also known as the initial commercially successful 8bit . These were also not capable of performing arithmetic calculations but instead were used mostly in control applications. In 1978, Intel released its first 16-bit microprocessor which started the 3^rd generation of microprocessors. With its 16-bit word size it was capable of performing arithmetic calculation in a quite decent range. This and other 16-bit microprocessors found applications beyond control applications. In the initial 1980s Intel launched its 32 bits microprocessor named . With the word size of 32 bits, it was capable of performing arithmetic operations in a very large range. Motorola also came up with its own microprocessor. In the initial 1990s Intel launched 80586, the famous Pentium processor. It was tremendously quick due to faster clock frequency. The  released in 2004 had  transistors and with a  occurrence of 1.5GHz, it was capable of performing 1500 million instructions per second. In 2003 some apple products started using 64 bits microprocessors (Borkar & et al, 2011).

Design in aspect of Computer hardware

A microprocessor is a multipurpose chip; it is made up of several parts. Primary parts of a microprocessor are as follows:

1-Control Unit in aspect of Computer hardware:

A control unit’s main purpose is to coordinate how data move around microprocessor.  leads every single action made by a processor. It orders the memory of a computer, calculation/logic unit as well as input and output devices how they should reply to the entire instructions. It obtains instruction or data from memory, then interprets that instructions and control the transfer of instructions and data in the microprocessor (Kalnoskas, 2014).

2-Arithmetic and Logic unit in aspect of Computer hardware:

An arithmetic logic unit (ALU) signifies the most essential microprocessor block of a computer. It’s actually a digital component that is responsible for performing arithmetic and logic operations. An ALU accomplishes the simple arithmetic actions such as , multiplication, division, and subtraction. It also performs basic  e.g. NOT, AND and XOR, etc.  All the information in computers in computers is stored in binary form which means transistors have either OFF (0) or ON (1) state. Current cannot pass through open transistor and it represents 0. And current can pass through a closed transistor which represents a 1. The state of a transistor can be changed depending on other single or multiple transistors which are called gates. The simple logical operation is “NOT”, which just inverts the previous state of the transistor. Similarly, multiple transistors are used to perform arithmetic operations on the numbers. An example of this would be a full adder which is a digital circuit which can add binary numbers along with any carrier. One-bit full adders can three one-bit numbers. Multiple gates are required for these digital circuits like, to create a full adder 2 ,  gate and will be required (Gopal & et al, 2014).

 3-Floating Point Unit in aspect of Computer hardware

ALU can only perform arithmetic operations on integer values, to perform operations on floating-point numbers; microprocessors have another unit which is called Floating Point Unit or FPU. A number of floating-point is a special double number which is carried out to a specific number of digits in addition to the  somewhere in the sequence of digit. Their number is saved in three portions: the sign (either positive or negative), the mantissa (sequence of meaningful digits), as well as the exponent who tells where the radix or decimal point will be placed inside mantissa. Typical operation in an FPU is such as , multiplication, division, subtraction, square root, and bit shifting.  In older microcomputers in 1980s FPUs used to be entirely separate from the microprocessor as well as they were sold separately so if anyone needs math-intensive programs, they can buy an FPU. 

4-Memory Management Unit in aspect of Computer hardware:

Memory Management Unit (MMU) in a microprocessor is responsible for handling all the memory and caching. Whenever microprocessor needs any data, it requests Memory Management Unit and it is its responsibility to provide a microprocessor with the data it needs to perform the task at hand.

5-Bus Interface Unit in aspect of Computer hardware:

 is in charge for transferring data as well as addresses on the buses designed for the unit of execution (ALU, FPU, etc). It has to send out addresses, procure the detail instruction from memory, read data derived from ports also memory, as well as write data to ports and memory.

6-Registers in aspect of Computer hardware:

A register is just like a memory location, it stores bits. But it is much different from physical memory because it is part of the microprocessor hence the access is very fast compared with the physical memory (RAM). Registers are generally used to store temporary data that microprocessor needs, like operands and the result of an operation or the address of the memory from where the processor needs data. There are different types of registers in a microprocessor some of which are

a)      Program counter – It comprises the address of the following instruction that needed by the program. It is one of the most significant types of register

b)      Data registers – These registers contain temporary data values

c)      Address registers – These registers contain memory addresses that the microprocessor needs

d)      Interrupt control register: It is used to configure the interrupts when the OS needs to step up and take control. E.g., Alt + F4.

Applications of Microprocessors in aspect of Computer hardware

There are different items like the car equipment, household item, car keys, DVD players, smoke alarms, cellular telephones, toys, light switches and dimmers, battery packs, power tools, and electrical circuit breakers use microprocessors.  Standards of pollutions control need the automobile manufactures to use the microprocessor engine for the management system of optimal control of emission throughout the operating circumstances.  creates the life at ease due to the massive application is every single meadow, and the use of microprocessor involves the limited conditions (Raymond & et al, 2003).

Household devices in aspect of Computer hardware

 The microprocessor technology needs for all the complex home security systems which are the programmable thermostats and neatly attached to the wall. The home security system which is the technology-based, and then microprocessor assists by the large monitoring with small properties.

Industrial application of Microprocessor in aspect of Computer hardware

There are various industrial items where the microprocessor includes; Planes, trucks, machinery, cars, traffic control device, computer services, security systems as well as some doors by the automatic entry  

Transportation industry in aspect of Computer hardware

Planes, trains, and automobiles used the technology of microprocessor. To keep the computer safe microprocessor or works behind those scenes, and the consumer’s vehicles like trucks, cars, and RVs integrate the microprocessor to communicate the significant information by the vehicles.  

Computer and Electronics in aspect of Computer hardware

The brain of the computers is  which initiatives the technology, and it is sued in the computer ranging from the supercomputers to microprocessor. 

In Medicals in aspect of Computer hardware

In the different medical devices like the insulin pump which are controlled by the microprocessors. This microprocessor performed the differ function like the bio-sensors, processing data, storing measurements as well as analyzing results. For this, an application designed the selects the microprocessor, by the rich instructions which set as well as proven the tracks records.