- What is a microprocessor?
- Microprocessor history
- Microprocessor Features
- What is a microprocessor for?
- Microprocessor function
We explain what a microprocessor is, the history and characteristics of this integrated circuit. Also, what it is for and its functions.
What is a microprocessor?
It is called a microprocessor or simply a processor to the central integrated circuit of a computer system, where the logical and arithmetic operations (calculations) are carried out to allow the execution of the programs, from the Operating system until the app software.
A microprocessor can operate with one or more CPU (Central Processing Units), each made up of registers, a control unit, an arithmetic-logical unit and a floating point calculation unit (or mathematical coprocessor).
Likewise, it has generally been connected by means of a socket to the motherboard or motherboard, together with a heat sink system made up of certain thermal dissipation materials and a fancooler (internal fan).
While the same microprocessor can have one or more physical or logical cores, in which all the calculation work is carried out, the same computer system can have several processors working in parallel.
The performance of these processors is not easy to measure, but the clock frequency (measured in Hertz) is often used to distinguish between the power of one and the other.
Microprocessor history
Microprocessors emerged as a product of the technological evolution of two specific branches: the computing and semiconductors. Both had their beginnings in the middle of the 20th century, in the context of the WWII, with the invention of transistor, with which the vacuum tubes were replaced.
Since then, silicon was used to generate simple electronic circuits, leading later (the beginning of the 1960s) to the creation of the first digital circuits: Transistor-Resistor Logic (RTL), Transistor Diode Logic (DTL) , Transistor-Transistor Logic (TTL) and Emitter Complemented Logic (ECL).
The next step towards microprocessors would be the invention of integrated circuits (SSI and MSI), thus allowing the beginning of the aggregation and miniaturization of components. The first calculators to use this technology However, they required between 75 and 100 integrated circuits, which was impractical. And so the next step in the downsizing of computational architecture was the development of the first microprocessors.
The first processor was the Intel 4004 manufactured in 1971. It contained 2300 transistors and with its only 4 bits capacity could perform 60,000 logic operations per second, at a clock frequency of 700 Hz. From then on, the technological race invested in the development of better and more powerful microchips: 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit. , currently reaching frequencies above 3 GHz.
Microprocessor Features
Caching prevents RAM from being used unnecessarily.
The microprocessors resemble a small computer miniature digital, so it presents its own architecture and performs operations under a control program. This architecture is made up of:
- Encapsulated A ceramic coating that covers the silicon and protects it from the elements (such as oxygen in the air).
- Cache. A type of ultra-fast memory available to the processor, so it does not use RAM but when necessary, since at the various levels of the cache data in use is saved for immediate retrieval.
- Math coprocessor. Called a floating point unit, it is the portion of the processor that handles logical and formal operations.
- Records. A short working memory in the processor, designed to keep track of its own operation and conditions.
- Ports The conduits that allow the processor to communicate the information with the rest of the system components.
What is a microprocessor for?
The microprocessors are the "brain" of the computer: its logical center of arithmetic and logical operations, where all the system programs will be executed, both those of the Operating System, as well as the applications executed by the computer. Username. There are also the binary logics of the system and memory accesses. That is to say: the processor is the informational engine of the computer.
Microprocessor function
A microprocessor operates on the basis of a series of elementary instructions that are pre-programmed and stored in the form of binary code. These instructions are going to be organized into the main memory, and are given according to several phases, which are:
- Prefetch. Or pre-reading of the instruction from the main memory of the system.
- Fetch. Sending the specific instruction to the decoder.
- Decoding. Translation of the instruction into a series of operations to be carried out, and reading of the necessary operands to do so.
- Execution. Completion of training by the components of the system.
- Writing. Saving the results back to main memory, or to registers.
These phases are carried out in several CPU cycles, and their duration depends on the frequency at which the microprocessor works.