History of Micro Processors

Genesis & Progression of Processors

OVERVIEWIntroductionKey Components of MicroprocessorWorking of MicroprocessorGeneration of MicroprocessorThe Story of Core and CPULife Cycle of CoreSingle CoreMultiple CoreDifference between Single Core, Dual Core and Multiple Cores

Introduction to MicroprocessorsA microprocessor is a computer processor which incorporates the functions of a computers central processing unit(CPU) on a single integrated circuit(IC).

It is a multipurpose, clock driven, register base, programmable electronic device which accepts digital or binary data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and provides result as output.

Architecture of Microprocessor

Architecture of Microprocessor

Key Components of MicroprocessorArithmetic and logic unit (ALU):- which calculates and thinks logically.Registers:- which are memory cells that store information temporarily for the ALU.Control Unit:- which decodes input instructions, and acts as a traffic cop.Bus Systems:- which are submicron wiring routes connecting the entire system.Clock:- which times the sequential release of the processed data.

Working of MicroprocessorMicroprocessor is a single IC package in which a number of useful functions are integrated and fabricated on a single silicon semiconductor chip. Its architecture consists of a central processing unit,memory modules, a system bus and an input/output unit.

The system bus connects the various units to facilitate exchange of information.

It further consists of data, address and control buses to perform data exchanging in a proper manner.

Continued.The Central processing unit consists of one or more arithmetic logic unit (ALU), registers, and control unit. Based on the registers also the generations of microprocessor can be classified.

A microprocessor consists of general purpose and special type of registers to execute instructions and to store the address or data while running the program.

The ALU computes all arithmetic as well aslogic operations on data and specifies the size of microprocessor like 16 bit or 32 bit.

The Memory unit holds the program as well as data and is divided into a processor, primary and secondary memory.

The Input and output unit interfaces the I/O peripheral devices to microprocessor for accepting and sending information.

DATA I/O BUSSpeed and width of external data bus are important features of the processor.

They define the rate at which data is moved into or out of the processor.

Data in computer is sent as digital information.

Amount of data(Bandwidth) sent can be increased by either increasing the cycling time or the number of bits sent at a time.

Address BusSet of wires carrying address information used to describe memory location.

Each wire in the address bus carries a single bit.

The more wires, the greater the total number of address locations.

The width of address bus indicates the maximum amount of RAM to be addressed.

Internal Registers(internal data bus)Indicates how much information the processor can operate on at one time.

How it moves data around internally within the chip.

Also referred as internal data bus.

A register: holding cell with in the CPU.

Ex: CPU adds numbers in two different registers, stores the result in third register.

Generation of Microprocessor1st Generation: This was the period during 1971 to 1973 of microprocessors history. In 1971, INTEL created the first microprocessor 4004 that would run at a clock speed of 108 KHz. 2ndGeneration: This was the period during 1973 to 1978 in which very efficient 8-bit microprocessors , which were among the most popular ones.

Continued3rd Generation: During this period 16 bit processors were created and designed. Speeds of these processors were four times better than the 2nd generation processors.

4th Generation: From 1981 to 1995 this generation developed 32 bit microprocessors.

5th Generation: From 1995 to until now this generation has been bringing out high-performance and high-speed processors that make use of 64-bit processors. Such processors include Pentium, Dual and Quad core processors.

First Intel Processor

Integrated Electronics (Intel). In 1971, the first microprocessor Intel 4004 was invented.

Intel 4004

Introduced in 1971. It was the first microprocessor by Intel. It was a 4-bit P. Its clock speed was 740KHz. It had 2,300 transistors. It could execute around 60,000 instructions per second.

Intel 4040

Introduced in 1974.

It was also 4-bit P.

Intel 8008

Introduced in 1972. It was first 8-bit P. Its clock speed was 500 KHz. Could execute 50,000 instructions per second. The big change in the 8008 was that it had an 8-bit data bus, which meant it could move data 8 bits at a timetwice as much as the previous chip.

Intel 8080

Introduced in 1974. It was also 8-bit P. Its clock speed was 2 MHz. It had 6,000 transistors. Was 10 times faster than 8008. Could execute 5,00,000 instructions per second.

Intel 8085

Introduced in 1976. It was also 8-bit P. Its clock speed was 3 MHz. Its data bus is 8-bit and address bus is 16-bit. It had 6,500 transistors. Could execute 7,69,230 instructions per second. It could access 64 KB of memory. It had 246 instructions. Over 100 million copies were sold.

Intel 8086

Introduced in 1978. It was first 16-bit P. Its clock speed is 4.77 MHz, 8 MHz and 10 MHz, depending on the version. Its data bus is 16-bit and address bus is 20-bit. It had 29,000 transistors. Could execute 2.5 million instructions per second. It could access 1 MB of memory. It had 22,000 instructions. It had Multiply and Divide instructions.

Intel 8088

Introduced in 1979. It was also 16-bit P. It was created as a cheaper version of Intels 8086. It was a 16-bit processor with an 8-bit external bus. Could execute 2.5 million instructions per second. This chip became the most popular in the computer industry when IBM used it for its first PC.

Intel 80186 & 80188 Introduced in 1982. They were 16-bit Ps. Clock speed was 6 MHz. 80188 was a cheaper version of 80186 with an 8- bit external data bus. They had additional components like: Interrupt Controller. Clock Generator. Local Bus Controller. Counters.

Intel 80286 Introduced in 1982. It was 16-bit P. Its clock speed was 8 MHz. Its data bus is 16-bit and address bus is 24-bit. It could address 16 MB of memory. It had 1,34,000 transistors. It could execute 4 million instructions per second.

Intel 80386 Introduced in 1986. It was first 32-bit P. Its data bus is 32-bit and address bus is 32-bit. It could address 4 GB of memory. It had 2,75,000 transistors. Its clock speed varied from 16 MHz to 33 MHz depending upon the various versions. Different versions: 1.80386 DX 2.80386 SX 3.80386 SL Intel 80386 became the best selling microprocessor in history.

Intel 80486 Introduced in 1989. It was also 32-bit P. It had 1.2 million transistors. Its clock speed varied from 16 MHz to 100 MHz depending upon the various versions. It had five different versions: 1. 80486 DX 2.80486 SX 3.80486 DX2 4.80486 SL 5.80486 DX4 8 KB of cache memory was introduced.

Intel Pentium Introduced in 1993. It was also 32-bit P. It was originally named 80586. Its clock speed was 66 MHz. Its data bus is 32-bit and address bus is 32-bit. It could address 4 GB of memory. Could execute 110 million instructions per second. Cache memory: 1. 8 KB for instructions. 2. 8 KB for data.

Intel Pentium Pro Introduced in 1995. It was also 32-bit P. It had L2 cache of 256 KB. It had 21 million transistors. It was primarily used in server systems. Cache memory: 8 KB for instructions. 8 KB for data. It had L2 cache of 256 KB.

Intel Pentium II Introduced in 1997. It was also 32-bit P. Its clock speed was 233 MHz to 500 MHz. Could execute 333 million instructions per second. MMX technology was supported. L2 cache & processor were on one circuit.

Intel Pentium II Xeon Introduced in 1998. It was also 32-bit P. It was designed for servers. Its clock speed was 400 MHz to 450 MHz. L1 cache of 32 KB & L2 cache of 512 KB, 1MB or 2 MB. It could work with 4 Xeons in same system.

Intel Pentium III Introduced in 1999. It was also 32-bit P. Its clock speed varied from 500 MHz to 1.4 GHz. It had 9.5 million transistors.

Intel Pentium IV Introduced in 2000. It was also 32-bit P. Its clock speed was from 1.3 GHz to 3.8 GHz. L1 cache was of 32 KB & L2 cache of 256 KB. It had 42 million transistors. All internal connections were made from aluminium to copper.

The Story of CORE and CPUA core is usually the basic computation unit of the CPU that handles the mathematical and logical operations.

While, CPU is something that can contain more than one core to perform more tasks at given time(software processes and threads scheduled by OS).

In Layman-terms, we can say core takes high level machine instructions and decode them into physical circuit operations and collection of such cores with supporting hardware makes a CPU.

Lets know the core, personallyHow does CORE work ?

Life cycle(Its just one cycle)Fetch instruction from memory(RAM/Cache) From where program counter is pointing.Each part has an Opcode. Tells the core what should be done with the information that follows it.Real operations are done to get the desired results.Places the result of whats been worked on back into the memory.

Lets know the core, personallyHow does CORE work ?

So, Now we are smart enough to understand:

More the number of cores, more the computers speed.Right ??

Lets know the core, personallyHow does CORE work ?

So, Now we are smart enough to understand:

More the number of cores, more the computers speed.Right ??Yes, right. But not exactly. How?

Lets know the core, personallyHow does CORE work ?

So, Now we are smart enough to understand:

No, More number of cores does not necessarily promises more speed of computer.

Lets know the core, personallyHow does CORE work ?

So, Now we are smart enough to understand:

No, More number of cores does not necessarily promises more speed of computer.

Because, CPU cores have to communicate with each other through channels and this uses up some of the extra speed.

How??

They need to communicate

The Multi-coresWhy do we need multiple cores?

As CPU speeds rose into the 3-4 GHz range the amount of electrical power required to go faster started to become prohibitive.

The technical reasons for this are complex but factors like heat losses and leakage current (power that simply passes through the circuitry without doing anything useful) both increase faster as frequencies rise.

While it's certainly possible to build a 6 GHz general purpose x86 CPU, it's not proven economical to do so efficiently. That's why the move to multi-core started.

THE Difference!Single Core

Dual Core

Quad core

Uses less power

Less heat generatedStays Cool!

Wastes powerPerforms fasterBut, But, ButLower battery life

Multitasking

Intel Dual Core Introduced in 2006. It is 32-bit or 64-bit P. It has two cores. Both the cores have there own internal bus and L1 cache, but share the external bus and L2 cache.

Dual CPU Core Chip

Intel Core 2 Duo Introduced in 2006. It is a 64-bit P. Its clock speed is from 1.2 GHz to 3 GHz. It has 291 million transistors. It is launched in three different versions: 1. Intel Core 2 Duo 2. Intel Core 2 Quad 3.Intel Core 2 Extreme.

Intel Core I7 Introduced in 2008. It is a 64-bit P. It has 4 physical cores. Its clock speed is from 2.66 GHz to 3.33 GHz. It has 781 million transistors.

Intel Core I5 Introduced in 2009. It is a 64-bit P. It has 4 physical cores. Its clock speed is from 2.40 GHz to 3.60 GHz. It has 781 million transistors.

Intel Core I3 Introduced in 2010. It is a 64-bit P. It has 2 physical cores. Its clock speed is from 2.93 GHz to 3.33 GHz. It has 781 million transistors.

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