WHAT IS MICROPROCESSOR

WHAT IS MICROPROCESSOR (µp)?

Microprocessor is a central processing unit (CPU) on a single IC (integrated circuit) chip containing billions or millions of very small components including resistors, diodes, transistors, capacitors etc. that works all together.

Here you can get a general idea of the architecture of µp unit. Firstly, It contains ALU – Arithmetic Logical unit, which is capable of performing logical operations like addition, subtraction etc. However, the control unit is capable of controlling peripherals depending upon commands. Moreover, Register Array in which all instructions are being stored.

These are inside or on the same chip of the µp as we discussed above, while memory units like RAM, ROM are externally attached to the µp unit. On the hand, Input and output peripherals are also externally attached like switches or buttons, Led, LCD screens etc.

WHEN FIRST MICROPROCESSOR CAME INTO EXIST

In the 1970’s first Microprocessor was invented for use for embedded systems.

FIRST COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE

First commercially available microprocessor is a 4 bit, which was introduced by Intel Corporation in 1971 and was named as Intel C4004.

HOW MICROPROCESSOR WORKS IN EMBEDDED SYSTEM?

It processes commonly in three steps namely Fetch, Decode, and Execute.

• Firstly, Fetch step, in this step an instruction is copied/fetched from its memory.
• Secondly, Decode step, in this microprocessor try to understand what operation to perform according to the instruction fed.
• Finally, In the Execute step, this operation will perform.

Operations are like addition/ subtraction/ multiplication/ division etc. of two numbers, or moving some data from one place (memory) to another, or complicated, like copying and paste of a series of letters and numbers (called a string) from one place to a different place in the computer’s memory.

For more : Wikipedia Microprocessor

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