Microprocessor and Microcontroller

 INTRODUCTION TO MICROPROCESSOR AND MICROCOMPUTER ARCHITECTURE

    A microprocessor is a programmable            electronics chip that has computing and       decision   making capabilities similar to      centra   processing unit of a    computer     Any microprocessor   based systems             having limited number of    resources           are   called microcomputers.   Nowadays,     microprocessor can be seen in almost           all types of electronics devices like                   mobile phones,    printers, washing              machines etc.   Microprocessors are also     used in    advanced applications like             radars, satellites and flights. Due to the        rapid advancements in electronic                   industry and large scale integration of           devices results in a significant cost                 reduction and increase application of            microprocessors and their derivatives.

 Bit: A bit is a single binary digit.

 Word: A word refers to the basic data         size or bit size that can be processed by        the arithmetic and logic unit of the                processor. A 16-bit binary number is              called a word in a 16-bit processor.

 Bus: A bus is a group of wires/lines that          carry similar information.

 System Bus: The system bus is a group of wires/lines used for communication 

between the microprocessor and peripherals.

 Memory Word: The number of bits that can be stored in a register or memory element is called a memory word.

 Address Bus: It carries the address,              which is a unique binary pattern used           to   identify a memory location or an             I/O     port. For example, an eight bit              address bus      has eight lines and thus         it can address 28= 256 different                    locations. The locations in hexadecimal         format can be written as 00H – FFH.

 Data Bus: The data bus is used to                    transfer data between memory and                 processor or between I/O device and              processor. For example, an 8-bit                   processor will generally have an 8-bit           data bus and a 16-bit processor will                have 16-bit data bus.

 Control Bus: The control bus carry                control signals, which consists of signals       for selection of memory or I/O device           from the given address, direction of            data transfer and synchronization of             data transfer in case of slow devices.