MICROPROCESSOR BASICS AND
THE INTERNAL ARCHITECTURE
E NG R . J O K H I O S U LTAN S A LA H U D D I N
K O H I S TA N I
E . B ( C S ) , E . M ( I T) , CC N A , J NC I A - EX
L E CT U R E R
D E PART M E NT O F CO M P U T E R S Y S T E M S
ENGINEERING
M E H R A N UN I V E R S I T Y O F E N G I NE E R I NG &
T E C HN O L O GY, J A M S H O R O , S I N DH , PA K I S TA N.
MICROPROCESSOR
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The key element of all computers, providing the
mathematical and decision making ability
Current state-of-the-art microprocessors (Pentium, Athlon,
SPARC, PowerPC) contain complex circuits consisting of
tens of millions of transistors
They operate at ultra-fast speeds – doing over a billion
operations every second
Made up from a semiconductor, Silicon
Engr. JSS Kohistani
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
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Commonly known as an IC or a chip
A tiny piece of Silicon that has several electronic parts on
it
Most of the size of an IC form the pins and packaging; the
actual Silicon occupies a very small piece of the volume
The smallest components on an IC are much smaller than
the thickness of a human hair
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COMPONENTS ON IC
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Transistors
Diodes
Resistors
Capacitors
Wires (Printed)
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MICROPROCESSOR SYSTEM
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Microprocessors are powerful pieces of hardware, but not
much useful on their own
Just as the human brain needs hands, feet, eyes, ears, mouth
to be useful; so does the microprocessor
A Microprocessor system is microprocessor plus all the
components it requires to do a certain task
A microcomputer is 1 example of a microprocessor system
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WHAT ARE MICROCONTROLLERS?
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Micro-controllers are another type of microprocessor
systems
They are generally not that powerful, cost a few dollars a
piece, and are found embedded in video games, VCRs,
microwave ovens, printers, autos, etc.
They are a complete computer on a chip containing direct
input and output capability and memory along with the
microprocessor on a single chip.
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WHAT IS INSIDE A
MICROPROCESSOR?
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LE T’ S S E E…
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INSIDE A MICROPROCESSOR
Microprocessor
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Data
Cache
Memory
Bus Control Arithmetic
RAM Bus Unit & Logic
Interface Unit
I/O Unit
Instruction Registers
System Decoder
Bus
Floating
Point
Unit
Instruction
Cache Registers
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BUS INTERFACE UNIT
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Receives instructions & data from main memory
Instructions are then sent to the instruction cache, data to
the data cache
Also receives the processed data and sends it to the main
memory
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INSTRUCTION DECODER
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This unit receives the programming instructions and
decodes them into a form that is understandable by the
processing units, i.e. the ALU or FPU
Then, it passes on the decoded instruction to the ALU or
FPU
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ARITHMETIC & LOGIC UNIT (ALU)
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Also known as the “Integer Unit”
It performs whole-number math calculations (subtract,
multiply, divide, etc) comparisons (is greater than, is
smaller than, etc.) and logical operations (NOT, OR,
AND, etc)
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FLOATING POINT UNIT
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Also known as the “Numeric Unit”
It performs calculations that involve numbers represented in
the scientific notation (also known as floating-point numbers).
This notation can represent extremely small and extremely
large numbers in a compact form
Floating-point calculations are required for doing graphics,
engineering and scientific work
The ALU can do these calculations as well, but will do them
very slowly
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REGISTERS
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Both ALU & FPU have a very small amount of super-fast
private memory placed right next to them for their
exclusive use. These are called registers
The ALU & FPU store intermediate and final results from
their calculations in these registers
Processed data goes back to the data cache and then to
main memory from these registers
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CONTROL UNIT
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The brain of the microprocessor
Manages the whole microprocessor
Tasks include fetching instructions & data, storing data,
managing input/output devices
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FEEDBACK
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GET READY
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Microprocessor
Data
Cache
Memory
Bus Control Arithmetic
RAM Bus Unit & Logic
Interface Unit
I/O Unit
Instruction Registers
System Decoder
Bus
Floating
Point
Unit
Instruction
Cache Registers
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