Microprocessors Essay Research Paper Microprocessors

Microprocessors Essay, Research Paper

Microprocessors

Inside of the mysterious box that perches ominously on your desk is one of

the marvels of the modern world. This marvel is also a total enigma to most of

the population. This enigma is, of course, the microprocessor. To an average

observer a microprocessor is simply a small piece of black plastic that is found

inside of almost everything.

In How Microprocessors Work they are defined as a computer’s central

processing unit, usually contained on a single integrated circuit (Wyant and

Hammerstrom, 193). In plain English this simply means that a microprocessor is

the brain of a computer and it is only on one chip. Winn L. Rosch compares them

to being an electronic equivalent of a knee-joint that when struck with the

proper digital stimulus will react in the exact same way each time (Rosch,37).

More practically a microprocessor is multitudinous transistors squeezed onto as

small a piece of silicon as possible to do math problems as fast as possible.

Microprocessors are made of many smaller components which all work

together to make the chip work. A really good analogy for the way the inner

workings of a chip operate can be found in How Microprocessors Work. In their

book, Wyant and Hammerstrom describe a microprocessor as a factory and all of

the inner workings of the chip as the various parts of a factory (Wyant and

Hammerstrom, 71-103). Basically a microprocessor can be seen as a factory

because like a factory it is sent something and is told what to do with it. The

microprocessor factory processes information. This most basic unit of this

information is the bit. A bit is simply on or off. It is either a one or a zero.

Bits are put into 8 bit groups called bytes. The number 8 is used because it is

offers enough combinations to encode our entire language (2^8=256). If only 4

bits are used only (2^4=16) combinations would be possible. This is enough to

encode 9 digits and some operations. (The first microprocessors powered

calculators) A half byte is called a nibble and consists of 4 bits. In the world

of computer graphics the combination of bits is easier seen. In computer

graphics bits are used to make color combinations, thus with more bits more

colors are possible. Eight bit graphics will display 256 colors, 16 bit will

display 65,536, and 24 bit graphics will display 16.7 million colors. The bus

unit is described as the shipping dock because it controls data transfers, and

functions between the individual pieces of the chip. The part of the chip that

performs the role of a purchasing department is called the prefetch unit. It’s

job is to make certain that enough data is on hand to keep the chip busy. The

decode unit performs the role of a receiving department. It breaks done

complicated instructions from the rest of the computer into smaller pieces that

the chip can manipulate more readily. The control unit is compared to the

person who oversees the workings of the entire factory. It is the part of the

chip that keeps all the other parts working together and coordinates their

actions. The arithmetic logic unit is compared to the assembly line of the

factory. It is the part of the microprocessor that performs the math operations.

It consists of circuitry that performs the math and the registers which hold the

necessary information. The memory management unit is likened to the shipping

department of this digital factory. It is responsible for sending data to the

bus unit. Together all of the individual pieces support each other to make this

digital symbiosis work as fast as possible.

To an outsider, computer nerd vernacular and all other forms of computer

people esoteric may or may not be considered frightening. Probably the most

confused term in microprocessor performance is Megahertz (MHz). Basically these

are millions of cycles per second. This is a measurement of chip speed but is

better considered the RPM of the chip (Knorr, 135). For example a 486 100 MHz

processor cannot touch the speed of a Pentium running at only 60 MHz. This is

because the Pentium packs more power and can do more per clock cycle. The

computer bus is the data line that connects the microprocessor the rest of the

computer. The width of the bus (how many bits it consists of) controls how much

data can be sent to the chip per clock cycle. MIPS or millions of instructions

per second is simply how many instructions the chip can perform in one second

divided by 1,000,000. RISC is a commonly used term in the computing world also.

It is an acronym for Reduced Instruction Set Computer. Chips that incorporate

RISC technology basically rely on simplicity to enhance performance. Motorola

chips use this technology. The opposite of RISC is CISC which stands for Complex

Instruction Set Computer. These chips use more hardwired instructions to speed

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