Chapter One:

Introduction To Microprocessor and

Computers

By: Gemmachis Teshite (MSc)

 Mechanical Age
Abacus
 The idea of a computing system is not new.
 It has been around long before modern electrical and
electronic devices were developed.
 The idea of calculating with a machine dates to 500 BC
when the Babylonians, the ancestors of the present-day
Iraqis, invented the abacus.
 It was the first mechanical calculator.
 It uses strings of beads to perform calculations.
 It was used by the ancient Babylonian priests to keep track
of their vast storehouses of grain.
 Cont’d…
Pascaline
 The abacus, which was used extensively and is still in use
today, was not improved until 1642, when mathematician
Blaise Pascal invented a calculator called Pascaline that
was constructed of gears and wheels.
 Each gear contained 10 teeth that, when moved one
complete revolution, advanced a second gear one place.
 Incidentally, the PASCAL programming language is
named in honor of Blaise Pascal for his pioneering work in
mathematics and with the mechanical calculator.
 Cont’d…
Analytical Engine
 It was invented by Charles Babbage, early pioneer of
mechanical computing machinery in 1823.
 He was commissioned by the Royal Astronomical Society
of Great Britain to produce a programmable calculating
machine.
 This machine was to generate navigational tables for the
Royal Navy.
 This engine was a steam-powered mechanical computer
that stored a thousand 20-digit decimal numbers and a
variable program that could modify the function of the
machine to perform various calculating tasks.
 Input to his engine was through punched cards.
 Electrical Age

Motor-driven Adding Machine

 It was conceived by Michael Faraday

 All of its design was based on the mechanical calculator
developed by Blaise Pascal.
 These electrically driven mechanical calculators were common
pieces of office equipment until well into the early 1970s, when
the small handheld electronic calculator, first introduced by
Bomar Corporation and called the Bomar Brain, appeared.
 Herman Hollerith Contributions…

 In 1889, Herman Hollerith developed the punched card for storing

data
 He also developed a mechanical machine—driven by one of the new
electric motors—that counted, sorted, and collated information stored
on punched cards.
 The idea of calculating by machinery intrigued the United States
government so much that Hollerith was commissioned to use his
punched-card system to store and tabulate information for the 1890
census.
 In 1896, Hollerith formed a company called the Tabulating Machine
Company, which developed a line of machines that used punched
cards for tabulation.
 After a number of mergers, the Tabulating Machine Company was
formed into the International Business Machines Corporation, now
referred to more commonly as IBM, Inc.
 The punched cards used in early computer systems are often called
 Z3
 A German inventor named Konrad Zuse, who worked as
an engineer for the Henschel Aircraft Company in Berlin,
invented the first modern electromechanical computer
called Z3 in 1941.
 It was invented for use in aircraft and missile design
during World War II for the German war effort

 The Z3 was a relay logic machine that was clocked at 5.33

Hz
 colossus
 It was invented by Alan Turing in 1943
 It was the first electronic computer which was placed into
operation to break secret German military codes.
 It was this first electronic computing system, which used
vacuum tubes.
 It was called Colossus, probably because of its size.
 Colossus was not programmable
 It was a fixed-program computer system, which today is
often called a special purpose computer.
 ENIAC
 It was developed in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania.
 It was the first general-purpose, programmable electronic computer system
 The ENIAC was a huge machine, containing over 17,000 vacuum tubes and
over 500 miles of wires.
 This massive machine weighed over 30 tons, yet performed only about
100,000 operations per second.
 The ENIAC thrust the world into the age of electronic computers.
 The ENIAC was programmed by rewiring its circuits—a process that took
many workers several days to accomplish.
 The workers changed the electrical connections on plug-boards that looked
like early telephone switchboards.
 Another problem with the ENIAC was the life of the vacuum tube
components, which required frequent maintenance.
 Cont’d…
 Breakthroughs that followed were the development of the transistor in 1947 at
Bell Labs by John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain.

 This was followed by the 1958 invention of the integrated circuit (IC) by Jack
Kilby of Texas Instruments.

 The integrated circuit led to the development of digital integrated circuits

(RTL, or resistor-to-transistor logic) in the 1960s and the first microprocessor
at Intel Corporation in 1971.

 At that time, Intel engineers Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stan Mazor
developed the 4004 microprocessor—the device that started the
microprocessor revolution that continues today at an ever-accelerating pace.
 Programming Advancements…….

 Now that programmable machines were developed, programs and

programming languages began to appear.
 The first programmable electronic computer system was
programmed by rewiring its circuits.
 Because this proved too cumbersome for practical application, early in the
evolution of computer systems, computer languages began to appear in order
to control the computer.
 Machine Language
 It was constructed of ones and zeros using binary codes that were stored in the
computer memory system as groups of instructions called a program.
 This was more efficient than rewiring a machine to program it, but it was still
extremely time-consuming to develop a program because of the sheer number
of program codes that were required.
 Mathematician John von Neumann was the first modern person to develop a
system that accepted instructions and stored them in memory.
 Computers are often called von Neumann machines in honor of John von
Neumann.
 Assembly Language

 Once computer systems such as the UNIVAC became available in the early
1950s, assembly language was used to simplify the chore of entering binary
code into a computer as its instructions.

 The assembler allows the programmer to use mnemonic codes, such as ADD
for addition, in place of a binary number such as 0100 0111.
 High Level Language
 Although assembly language was an aid to programming, it wasn’t until 1957,
when Grace Hopper developed the first high-level programming language
called FLOWMATIC, that computers became easier to program.
 In the same year, IBM developed FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator) for its
computer systems.
 The FORTRAN language allowed programmers to develop programs that used
formulas to solve mathematical problems.
 Note that FORTRAN is still used by some scientists for computer
programming.
 Another similar language, introduced about a year after FORTRAN, was
ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language).
 Cont’d…
 The first truly successful and widespread programming language for business
applications was COBOL (COmputer Business Oriented Language).
 Although COBOL usage has diminished considerably in recent years, it is still
a player in some large business and government
systems.
 Another once-popular business language is RPG (Report Program
Generator), which allows programming by specifying the form of the input,
output, and calculations.
 Since these early days of programming, additional languages have appeared.
 Some of the more common modern programming languages are BASIC, C#,
C/C++, Java, PASCAL, and ADA.
 Cont’d…
 In the scientific community, primarily C/C++ and occasionally PASCAL and
FORTRAN appear as control programs.
 One recent survey of embedded system developers showed that C was used by
60% and that 30% used assembly language.
 The remainder used BASIC and JAVA.
 These languages, especially C/C++, allow the programmer almost complete
control over the programming environment and computer system.
 In many cases, C/C++ is replacing some of the low-level machine control
software or drivers normally reserved for assembly language.
 Even so, assembly language still plays an important role in programming.
 Cont’d…
 Many video games written for the personal computer are written almost
exclusively in assembly language.
 Assembly language is also interspersed with C/C++ to perform machine
control functions efficiently.
 Some of the newer parallel instructions found on the newest Pentium and
Core2 microprocessors are only programmable in assembly language
 Microprocessor Age
 A microprocessor is a computer processor that incorporates the functions of a
central processing unit on a single integrated circuit (IC), or at most a few
integrated circuits.
  The microprocessor is a multipurpose, clock driven, register based,
digital integrated circuit that accepts binary data as input, processes it according
to instructions stored in its memory, and provides results as output.
 Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and  sequential digital logic.
 Microprocessors operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary
number system.
 There are different companies currently involved in manufacturing microprocessor
chips. The most popular are:
 Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Hewlet-Packard (HP), Motorola, Acer, Media Tek,
Sun, GlobalFoundries, Marvell, Texas Instruments (TI), Freescale, ARM Holdings,
Rockchip, Atmel, Tilera and etc……..
The course focuses on the Intel microprocessor family (Intel 8086)…
 Intel 4004

 The world’s first microprocessor released by Intel in 1971.

 It was a 4-bit microprocessor.
 It addressed a mere 4096, 4-bit-wide memory locations.
 The 4004 instruction set contained only 45 instructions
 It executes instructions at the slow rate of 50 KIPs
 The 4-bit microprocessor debuted in early video game
systems and small microprocessor-based control systems.
 One such early video game, a shuffleboard game, was
produced by Bailey.
 The main problems with this early microprocessor
were its speed, word width, and memory size.
 Intel 4040
 It was 4-bit updated version of the earlier 4004
Microprocessor.
 It operated at a higher speed, although it lacked
improvements in word width and memory size
 Other companies, particularly Texas Instruments (TMS-
1000), also produced 4-bit microprocessors.
 The 4-bit microprocessor still survives in low-end
applications such as microwave ovens and small control
systems and is still available from some microprocessor
manufacturers.
 Most calculators are still based on 4-bit microprocessors
that process 4-bit BCD (binary-coded decimal) codes.
 Intel 8008
 Released late 1971 by Intel after realizing that the
microprocessor was a commercially viable product.
 It was an extended 8-bit version of the 4004
microprocessor.
 It addressed an expanded memory size (16K bytes).
 It contained additional instructions (a total of 48) that
provided an opportunity for its application in more
advanced systems.
 It executed instructions at the rate of 50,000 KIPS.
 Intel 8080
 As engineers developed more demanding uses for the 8008 microprocessor,
they discovered that its somewhat small memory size, slow speed, and
instruction set limited its usefulness.

 Intel recognized these limitations and introduced the 8080 microprocessor in

1973.
 It was the first of the modem 8-bit microprocessors.
 About six months after Intel released the 8080 microprocessor, Motorola
Corporation introduced its MC6800 microprocessor.
 Soon, other companies began to introduce their own versions of the 8-bit
microprocessor.
 The 8080 address more memory and execute additional instructions than the
8008
 Intel 8080 executed instructions at the rate of 500,000 KIPS.
 It addressed four times more memory (64K bytes) than the 8008 (16K bytes).
 Cont’d…
 Some early 8-bit Microprocessor
 Intel 8085
 In 1977, Intel Corporation introduced an updated version of the
8080—the 8085.
 The 8085 was to be the last 8-bit, general-purpose microprocessor developed
by Intel.
 Although only slightly more advanced than an 8080 microprocessor, the 8085
executed software at an even higher speed.
 It executed instructions at the rate of 769,230 KIPS.
 The main advantages of the 8085 were its internal clock generator, internal
system controller, and higher clock frequency.
 This higher level of component integration reduced the 8085’s cost and
increased its usefulness.
 Intel 8086/8088
 8086 was released in 1978.
 A year or so later, Intel released the 8088 microprocessor.
 Both devices are 16-bit microprocessors.
 They executed instructions at the rate of 2.5 MIPS
 The 8086 and 8088 addressed 1M byte of memory
 One other feature found in the 8086/8088 was a small 4- or
6-byte instruction cache or queue that pre-fetched a few
instructions before they were executed.
 In addition, the number of instructions increased from 45 on
the 4004, to 246 on the 8085, to well over 20,000 variations
on the 8086 and 8088 microprocessors.
 These microprocessors are called CISC (complex
instruction set computers) because of the number and
complexity of instructions.
 Cont’d…
 The 16-bit microprocessor evolved mainly because of the
need for larger memory systems.
The popularity of the Intel family was ensured in 1981, when
IBM Corporation decided to use the 8088 microprocessor in
its personal computer.
 Applications such as spreadsheets, word processors, spelling
checkers, and computer-based thesauruses were memory-
intensive and required more than the 64K bytes of memory
found in 8-bit microprocessors to execute efficiently.
 Soon, even the 1M-byte memory system proved limiting for
large databases and other applications.
This led Intel to the introduction of the 80286
microprocessor
 Intel 80286
 It was released in 1983
 It was almost identical to the 8086 and 8088, except it
addressed a 16M-byte memory system instead of a 1M-byte
system.
 The instruction set of the 80286 was almost identical to the
8086 and 8088, except for a few additional instructions that
managed the extra 15M bytes of memory.
The clock speed of the 80286 was increased, so it executed
4.0 MIPS.
 Intel 80386
 Applications began to demand faster microprocessor speeds, more
memory, and wider data paths.
 This led to the arrival of the 80386 in 1986 by Intel Corporation.
 The 80386 was Intel’s first practical 32-bit microprocessor that contained a 32-bit
data bus and a 32-bit memory address.
 Through these 32-bit buses, the 80386 addressed up to 4G bytes of memory.
 The 80386 was available in a few modified versions such as:
 80386SX: Which addressed 16M bytes of memory through
a 16-bit data and 24-bit address bus.
 80386SL/80386SLC: Which addressed 32M bytes of
memory through a 16-bit data and 25-bit address bus.
 In 1995, Intel released the 80386EX microprocessor.
 The 80386EX contains 24 lines for input/output data, a 26-
bit address bus, a 16-bit data bus a
DRAM refresh controller, and programmable chip selection
logic.
 Cont’d…
 Applications that require higher microprocessor speeds and large memory
systems include software systems that use a GUI, or graphical user
interface.
 Modem graphical displays often contain 256,000 or more picture
elements (pixels, or pels).
 The least sophisticated VGA (variable graphics array) video display has
a resolution of 640 pixels per scanning line with 480 scanning lines (this
is the resolution used when the computer boots and display the boot
screen).
 To display one screen of information, each picture element must be
changed, which requires a high-speed microprocessor.
 Virtually all new software packages use this type of video interface.
 These GUI-based packages require high microprocessor speeds and
accelerated video adapters for quick and efficient manipulation of video
text and graphical data.
 The most striking system, which requires high-speed computing for its
graphical display interface, is Microsoft Corporation’s Windows.
 We often call a GUI a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)
 Cont’d…
 Besides providing higher clocking speeds, the 80386 included a memory
management unit that allowed memory resources to be allocated and managed by
the operating system.
 Earlier microprocessors left memory management completely to the software.
 The 80386 included hardware circuitry for memory management and memory
assignment, which improved its efficiency and reduced software overhead.
 The instruction set of the 80386 microprocessor was upward-compatible with the
earlier 8086, 8088, and 80286 microprocessors.
 Additional instructions referenced the 32-bit registers and managed the memory
system.
 Memory management instructions and techniques used by the 80286 are also
compatible with the 80386 microprocessor.
 These features allowed older, 16-bit software to operate on the 80386
microprocessor.
 Intel 80486
 In 1989, Intel released the 80486 microprocessor, which incorporated an
80386-like microprocessor, an 80387-like numeric coprocessor, and an 8K-
byte cache
memory system into one integrated package.
 The internal structure of the 80486 was modified from the 80386 so that
about half of its instructions executed in one clock instead of two clocks.
 Because the 80486 was available in a 50 MHz version, about half of the
instructions executed at the rate of 50 MIPs.
 Later versions of the 80486 executed instructions at even higher speeds with
a 66 MHz double-clocked
version (80486DX2).
 The double-clocked 66 MHz version executed instructions at the rate of 66
MHz, with memory transfers executing at the rate of 33 MHz.
 Cont’d…
 A triple-clocked version from Intel, the 80486DX4, improved
the internal execution speed to 100 MHz with memory transfers at 33
MHz.
 It also contained an expanded 16K-byte cache in place of the
standard 8K-byte cache found on earlier 80486 microprocessors.
 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has produced a triple-clocked
version that runs with a bus speed of 40 MHz and a clock speed of
120 MHz.
 Other versions of the 80486 were called OverDrive processors.
 The OverDrive processor was actually a double-clocked version of
the 80486DX that replaced an 80486SX or slower speed 80486DX.
 When the OverDrive processor was plugged into its socket, it
disabled or
replaced the 80486SX or 80486DX, and functioned as a doubled-
clocked version of the microprocessor.
 For example, if an 80486SX, operating at 25 MHz, was replaced
with an OverDrive microprocessor, it functioned as an 80486DX2 50
MHz microprocessor using a memory transfer rate of 25 MHz.
 Pentium Microprocessor
 It was introduced in 1993
It was similar to the 80386 and 80486 microprocessors.
 It was originally labeled the P5 or 80586, but Intel decided not to use a number
because it appeared to be impossible to copyright a number.
 The two introductory versions of the Pentium operated with a clocking frequency
of 60 MHz and 66 MHz, and a speed of 110 MIPs, with a higher-frequency 100
MHz one and one-half clocked version that operated at 150 MIPs.
 The double-clocked Pentium, operating at 120 MHz and 133 MHz, was also
available.
 The cache size was increased to 16K bytes from the 8K cache found in the basic
version of the 80486
The Pentium contained an 8K-byte instruction cache and an 8K-byte data cache,
which allowed a program that transfers a large amount of memory data to still
benefit from a cache.
 Cont’d…
 The memory system contained up to 4G bytes, with the data bus width increased
from the 32 bits found in the 80386 and 80486 to a full 64 bits.
 Recent versions of the Pentium also included additional instructions, called
multimedia extensions, or MMX instructions.
 Intel had also released the long-awaited Pentium OverDrive (P24T) for older
80486 systems that operate at either 63 MHz or 83 MHz clock.
 The 63 MHz version upgrades older 80486DX2 50 MHz systems; the 83 MHz
version upgrades the 80486DX2 66 MHz systems.
 The upgraded 83 MHz system performs at a rate somewhere between a 66 MHz
Pentium and a 75 MHz Pentium.
 Pentium Pro Microprocessor
 A recent entry from Intel is the Pentium Pro processor, formerly
named the P6 microprocessor.
 The Pentium Pro processor contains 21 million transistors, integer
units, as well as a floating-point unit to increase the performance of most software
The basic clock frequency was 150 MHz and 166 MHz in the initial offering made
available in late 1995.
 In addition to the internal 16K level-one (L1) cache (8K for data and 8K for
instructions) the Pentium Pro processor also contains a 256K level-two (L2) cache.

 One other significant change is that the Pentium Pro processor uses three
execution engines, so it can execute up to three
instructions at a time, which can conflict and still execute in parallel.
 Cont’d…
 This represents a change from the Pentium, which executes two instructions
simultaneously as long as they do not conflict.
 The Pentium Pro microprocessor has been optimized to efficiently execute 32-bit
code; for this reason, it was often bundled with Windows NT rather than with
normal versions of Windows 95.
 Intel launched the Pentium Pro processor for the server market. Still another
change is that the Pentium Pro can address either a 4G-byte memory system or a
64G-byte memory system.
 The Pentium Pro has a 36-bit address bus if configured for a 64G memory system.
 Pentium II and Pentium Xeon Microprocessor

 The Pentium II microprocessor (released in 1997) represents a new direction for

Intel.
 Instead of being an integrated circuit as with prior versions of the microprocessor,
Intel has placed the Pentium II on a small circuit board.
 The main reason for the change is that the L2 cache found on the main circuit
board of the Pentium was not fast enough to function properly with the Pentium II.
 On the Pentium system, the L2 cache operates at the system bus speed of 60 MHz
or 66 MHz.
 The L2 cache and microprocessor are on a
circuit board called the Pentium II module.
 This onboard L2 cache operates at a speed of 133 MHz and stores 512K bytes of
information.
 The microprocessor on the Pentium II module is actually Pentium Pro with MMX
extensions.
 Cont’d…
 In 1998, Intel changed the bus speed of the Pentium II.
 Because the 266 MHz through the 333 MHz Pentium II microprocessors used an
external bus speed of 66 MHz, there was a bottleneck, so the newer Pentium II
microprocessors use a 100 MHz bus speed.
 The Pentium II microprocessors rated at 350 MHz, 400 MHz, and 450 MHz all use
this higher 100 MHz memory bus speed.
 The higher speed memory bus requires the use of 8 ns SDRAM in place of the 10
ns SDRAM found in use with the 66 MHz bus speed.
 Cont’d…
 In mid-1998 Intel announced a new version of the Pentium II called the Xeon,
which was specifically designed for high-end workstation and server applications.
 The main difference between the Pentium II and the Pentium II Xeon is that the
Xeon is available with a L1 cache size of 32K
bytes and a L2 cache size of either 512K, 1M, or 2M bytes.
 The Xeon functions with the 440GX chip set.
 The Xeon is also designed to function with four Xeons in the same system, which
is similar to the Pentium Pro.
 This newer product represents a change in Intel’s strategy:
 Intel now produces a professional version and a home/business version of the
Pentium II microprocessor.
 Pentium III and Microprocessor
 The Pentium III microprocessor uses a faster core than the
Pentium II, but it is still a P6 or Pentium Pro processor.
 It is also available in the slot 1 version mounted on a plastic cartridge and a socket
370 version called a flip-chip, which looks like the older Pentium package.
 Intel claims the flip-chip version costs less.
 Another difference is that the Pentium III is available with clock frequencies of up
to 1 GHz.
 Cont’d…
 The slot 1 version contains a 512K cache and the flip-chip version contains a
256K cache.
 The speeds are comparable because
the cache in the slot 1 version runs at one-half the clock speed, while the cache in
the flip-chip version runs at the clock speed.
 Both versions use a memory bus speed of 100 MHz, while the
Celeron uses memory bus clock speed of 66 MHz.
 The speed of the front side bus, the connection from the microprocessor to the
memory controller, PCI controller, and AGP controller, is now either 100 MHz or
133 MHz.
 Although the memory still runs at 100 MHz, this change has improved
performance.
 Pentium 4 and Core 2 and Microprocessor
 The Pentium 4 microprocessor was first made
available in late 2000. The most recent version of the Pentium is called the Core2
by Intel.
 The Pentium 4 and Core2, like the Pentium Pro through the Pentium III, use the
Intel P6 architecture.
 The main difference is that the Pentium 4 is available in speeds to 3.2 GHz and
faster and the chip sets that support the Pentium 4 use the RAMBUS or DDR
memory technologies in place of once standard SDRAM technology.
 The Core2 is available at speeds of up to 3 GHz.
 These higher microprocessor speeds are made available by an improvement in the
size of the internal integration, which at present is the 0.045 micron or 45 nm
technology.
 Cont’d…
 It is also interesting to note that Intel has changed the level 1 cache size from 8K
to 32K bytes and most recently to 64K.
 Research must have shown that this size is large enough for the initial release
version of the microprocessor, with future versions possibly containing a 64K L1
cache.
 The level 2 cache remains at 256K bytes as in the Pentium coppermine version
with the latest versions containing
a 512K cache.
 The Pentium 4 Extreme Edition contains a 2M L2 cache and the Pentium 4e
contains a 1M level 2 cache, whereas the Core2 contains either a 2M or 4M L2
cache.
 Pentium 4 and Core2, 64-bit and Multiple Core
Microprocessors.

 Recently Intel has included new modifications to the Pentium 4 and Core2 that
include a 64-bit core and multiple cores.
 The 64-bit modification allows the microprocessor to address more than 4G bytes
of memory through a wider 64-bit address.
 Currently, 40 address pins in these newer versions allow up to 1T (terabytes) of
memory to be accessed.
 The 64-bit machine also allows 64-bit integer arithmetic, but
this is much less important than the ability to address more memory.
 Cont’d…
 The biggest advancement in the technology is not the 64-bit operation,
but the inclusion of multiple cores.
 Each core executes a separate task in a program, which increases the
speed of execution if a program is written to take advantage of the
multiple cores.
 Programs that do this are called multithreaded applications.
 Currently, Intel manufactures dual and quad core versions, but in the
future the number of cores will likely increase to eight or even sixteen.
 The problem faced by Intel is that the clock speed cannot be increased
to a much higher rate, so multiple cores are the current solution to
providing faster microprocessors.
 Intel recently demonstrated a version of the Core2 that contains 80
cores that uses the 45 nm fabrication technology.
 Intel expects to release an 80-core version some time in the next 5
years.
 The fabrication technology will become slightly smaller with 35 nm
and possibly 25 nm technology.
 Cont’d…
 .
 Itanium Microprocessor
 In 2002, Intel released a new microprocessor architecture that
is 64 bits in width and has a 128-bit data bus.
 This new architecture, named the Itanium, is a joint venture
called EPIC (Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing) of
Intel and Hewlett-Packard.
 The Itanium architecture allows greater parallelism than
traditional architectures, such as the Pentium III or Pentium 4.
 These changes include 128 general-purpose integer registers,
128 floating-point registers, 64 predicate registers, and many
execution units to ensure enough hardware resources for
software.
 The development of microprocessors by Intel is still going on:
 Intel Core i3, i5, i7, recently core i9……………
Summary of many modern Intel and Motorola microprocessors.

 .
 Cont’d…
 .
 Cont’d…
 .
 Chapter 2:
To be continued…….