Microprocessor
A Microprocessor is a integrated circuit that incorporates a specific service.
- Example(s):
- Counter-Example(s):
- a DRAM.
- See: Computer Program, Digital Data, Sequential Logic, Medium-Scale Integration, Small-Scale Integration, Large-Scale Integration, Embedded System.
References
2014
- (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/microprocessor Retrieved:2014-8-3.
- A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) on a single integrated circuit (IC), or at most a few integrated circuits. [1] All modern CPUs are microprocessors making the micro- prefix redundant. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and provides results as output. It is an example of sequential digital logic, as it has internal memory. Microprocessors operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary numeral system.
The integration of a whole CPU onto a single chip or on a few chips greatly reduced the cost of processing power. The integrated circuit processor was produced in large numbers by highly automated processes, so unit cost was low. Single-chip processors increase reliability as there are many fewer electrical connections to fail. As microprocessor designs get faster, the cost of manufacturing a chip (with smaller components built on a semiconductor chip the same size) generally stays the same.
Before microprocessors, small computers had been implemented using racks of circuit boards with many medium- and small-scale integrated circuits. Microprocessors integrated this into one or a few large-scale ICs. Continued increases in microprocessor capacity have since rendered other forms of computers almost completely obsolete (see history of computing hardware), with one or more microprocessors used in everything from the smallest embedded systems and handheld devices to the largest mainframes and supercomputers.
- A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) on a single integrated circuit (IC), or at most a few integrated circuits. [1] All modern CPUs are microprocessors making the micro- prefix redundant. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and provides results as output. It is an example of sequential digital logic, as it has internal memory. Microprocessors operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary numeral system.
- ↑ Krishna Kant Microprocessors And Microcontrollers: Architecture Programming And System DesignPHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., 2007 ISBN 81-203-3191-5 page 61, describing the iAPX 432