1. What is a Microprocessor?

Microprocessor is a CPU fabricated on a single chip, program-controlled device, which

fetches the instructions from memory, decodes and executes the instructions.
2. What are the features of Intel 8086 ?
Features:  Released by Intel in 1978  Produced from 1978 to 1990s  A 16-bit
microprocessor chip.  Max. CPU clock rate:5 MHz to 10 MHz  Instruction set: x86-16 
Package: 40 pin DIP  16-bit Arithmetic Logic Unit  16-bit data bus (8088 has 8-bit data
bus)  20-bit address bus
3. What is Logical Address:?
A memory address on the 8086 consists of two numbers, usually written in hexadecimal and
separated by a colon, representing the segment and the offset. This combination of segment
and offset is referred to as a logical address • Logical address=segment: offset
4. What is Physical Address?
Physical memory address pointed by SEGMENT:OFFSET pair is calculated as: Physical
address = = (<Segment Addr> * 10) + <Offset Addr>
5. What are Flag registers?
Divided into 2 parts:-Condition code or status flags and machine control flags. S-Sign Flag:-
Is to set when the result of any computation is negative. Z-Zero Flag:-Is to set if the result of
the computation or comparision performed by the previous instruction is zero. C-Carry Flag:-
Is set when there is carry out of MSB in case of addition or a borrow in case of subtraction.
T-Trap Flag:-Is set,the processor enters the single step execution mode. I-Interrupt Flag:-Is
set,the maskable interrupts are recognised by the CPU. D-Direction Flag:-Is set for
autoincrementing or autodecrementing mode in string manipulation instructions. AC-
Auxiliary Carry Flag:-Is set if there is a carry from the lowest nibble during addition or
borrow for the lowest nibble. O-Overflow Flag:-Is setif the result of a signed operation is
large enough to be accommodated in a destination register.
6. What is Program counter? Program counter holds the address of either the first byte of
the next instruction to be fetched for execution or the address of the next byte of a multi byte
instruction, which has not been completely fetched. In both the cases it gets incremented
automatically one by one as the instruction bytes get fetched. Also Program register keeps the
address of the next instruction.
[Link] you studied buses? What types?
There are three types of buses. Address bus: This is used to carry the Address to the memory
to fetch either Instruction or Data. Data bus : This is used to carry the Data from the memory.
Control bus : This is used to carry the Control signals like RD/WR, Select etc.
8. What is meant by Maskable interrupts? An interrupt that can be turned off by the
programmer is known as Maskable interrupt.
9. What is Non-Maskable interrupts? An interrupt which can be never be turned off (ie.
disabled) is known as Non-Maskable interrupt
10. What are the different functional units in 8086? Bus Interface Unit and Execution unit,
are the two different functional units in 8086.
[Link] are the various segment registers in 8086? Code, Data, Stack, Extra Segment
registers in 8086.
12. What does EU do? Execution Unit receives program instruction codes and data from
BIU, executes these instructions and store the result in general registers.
13. What are the General Data Registers & their uses? A:- The Registers AX,BX,CX,DX
are the general Purpose 16-bit [Link] register as 16-bit [Link] register is used
as an offset [Link] register is used as default or implied [Link] register is used as an
implicit operand or destination in case of a few instructions.
14. What are Segment Registers & their uses? A:-There are 4 Segment Registers Code
Segment(CS),Data Segment(DS),Extra Segment(ES) & Stack Segment(SS) [Link] is
used for addressing memory locationin [Link] is used to points the [Link] refers to a
segment which is essentially in another data [Link] is used fopr addressing stack
segment of memory.
15. What does the 8086 Architecture contain?
The complete architecture of 8086 can be divided into 2types :-Bus Interface Unit(BIU) &
Execution Unit. The BIU contains the circuit for physical address calculations and a
precoding instruction byte queue & it makes the bus signals available for external interfacing
of the devices. The EU contains the register set of 8086 except segment registers and [Link] has
a 16-bit ALU,able to perform arithmetic and Logic operations.
16. What are Data Copy/Transfer Instructions? A:- MOV PUSH POP XCHG IN OUT
XLAT LEA LDS/LES LAHF SAHF PUSHF POPF
17. What are Machine Control Instructions? A:- NOP HLT WAIT LOCK
18) What are Flag Manipulation Instructions? A:- CLD STD CLI STI
19) WHAT ARE STRING INSTRUCTIONS? A:- REP MOVSB/MOVSW CMPS SCAS
LODS STOS
20. What is an Interrupts Def:- An interrupt operation suspends execution of a program so
that the system can take special [Link] interrupt routine executes and normally returns
control to the interrupted procedure, which then resumes execution.
21. What is an Opcode? A:-The part of the instruction that specifies the operation to be
performed is called the Operation code or Op code.
22. What is an Operand? A:-The data on which the operation is to be performed is called as
an Operand.
23. Explain the difference between a JMP and CALL instruction? A:-A JMP instruction
permantely changes the program counter. A CALL instruction leaves information on the
stack so that the original program execution sequence can be resumed.
24. What are machine language and assembly language programs? The software
developed using 1's and 0's are called machine language, programs. The software developed
using mnemonics are called assembly language programs.
25. What is a bus? Bus is a group of conducting lines that carries data, address and control
signals.
26. What are the modes in which 8086 can operate? The 8086 can operate in two modes
and they are minimum (or uniprocessor) mode and maximum ( or multiprocessor) mode.
27. Explain the function of M/IO in 8086. The signal M/IO is used to differentiate memory
address and 1/0 address When the processor is accessing memory locations MI 10 is asserted
high and when it is accessing 1/0 mapped devices it is asserted low.
28. What is HOLD and HLDA and how it is used? Hold and hold acknowledge signals are
used for the Direct Memory Access (DMA) type of data transfer. The DMA controller place a
high on HOLD pin in order to take control of the system bus. The HOLD request is
acknowledged by the 8085 by driving all its tristated pins to high impedance state and
asserting HLDA signal high.
29. What is scanning in display and what is the scan time? In display devices, the process
of sending display codes to 7 -segment LEDs to display the LEDs one by one is called
scanning ( or multiplexed display). The scan time is the time taken to display all the 7-
segment LEDs one by one, starting from first LED and coming back to the first LED again.
30. How is an LED interfaced with the 8086 using 8255? Port A of 8255 is configured as
output (Mode 0); writing a byte to Port A drives the corresponding LEDs ON or OFF.
31. How does the PUSH instruction work in 8086? PUSH decrements SP by 2 and
stores the 16-bit operand at the memory location pointed to by SS:SP.
32. What does the CALL instruction do in 8086? CALL pushes the return address (next
instruction's IP/CS) onto the stack and jumps to the subroutine address.
33. What is the difference between MUL and IMUL? MUL performs unsigned
multiplication; IMUL performs signed (2's complement) multiplication.
34. What is the difference between DIV and IDIV? DIV performs unsigned division;
IDIV performs signed division treating operands as 2's complement numbers.
35. What does the LOOP instruction do in 8086? LOOP decrements CX by 1 and jumps to
the target label if CX ≠ 0; it repeats a block CX times.
36. What is the DAA instruction used for?DAA (Decimal Adjust after Addition) corrects
the result in AL to valid BCD after a binary ADD operation.
37. What is the DAS instruction used for? DAS (Decimal Adjust after Subtraction) corrects
the result in AL to valid BCD after a binary SUB operation.
38. What are the addressing modes in 8086.
39. What is stepper motor.