4-bit Microprocessor Generations of Microprocessors:

First generation (4-bit Microprocessors)

From 1971 to 1972 the era of the first
generation came which brought microprocessors
like INTEL 4004 Rockwell international PPS-4
INTEL 8008 etc.

Second generation (8 - bit Microprocessor)

The second generation marked the

8-bit and 16-bit Microprocessor development of 8-bit microprocessors from 1973
to 1978. Processors like INTEL 8085 Motorola
6800 and 6801 etc came into existence

Third-generation (16-bit Microprocessor)

The third generation brought forward

the 16-bit processors like INTEL
8086/80186/80286 Motorola 68000 68010 etc.
From 1979 to 1980 this generation used the
HMOS technology.

Fourth generation (32 - bit Microprocessors)

Intel Pentium Microprocessor Series The fourth generation came into
existence from 1981 to 1995. The 32-bit
processors using HMOS fabrication came into
existence. INTEL 80386 and Motorola 68020 are
some of the popular processors of this
generation.

Fifth generation (64-bit Microprocessors)

From 1995 till now we are in the fifth
generation. 64-bit processors like PENTIUM,
Celeron, dual, quad, and octa-core processors
came into existence

HISTORY OF MICROPROCESSOR Microprocessors Characteristics

Microprocessors are multipurpose

devices that can be designed for generic or
specialized functions. The microprocessors of
laptops and smartphones are general purpose
whereas ones designed for graphical processing or
machine vision are specialized ones. There are
some characteristics that are common to all
microprocessors. These are the most important
defining characteristics of a microprocessor −
Clock speed, Instruction set and Word size.

(a) Clock Speed

 Every microprocessor has an internal
clock that regulates the speed at which
it executes instructions and also
synchronizes it with other
components. The speed at which the
microprocessor executes instructions
is called clock speed.
 Clock speeds are measured in MHz or
GHz where 1 MHz means 1 million
cycles per second whereas 1 GHz
equals to 1 billion cycles per second.
Here cycle refers to single electric
signal cycle.
 Currently microprocessors have clock
speed in the range of 3 GHz, which is
 maximum that current technology can ~ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit), ALU − It has
attain. Speeds more than this generate necessary circuits to perform arithmetic, logical,
enough heat to damage the chip itself. memory, register and program sequencing
To overcome this, manufacturers are operations,
using multiple processors working in
parallel on a chip. ~Register − It holds intermediate results
obtained during program processing. Registers
(b) Word Size are used for holding such results rather than
 Number of bits that can be processed RAM because accessing registers is almost 10
by a processor in a single instruction is times faster than accessing RAM.
called its word size.
 Word size determines the amount of
RAM that can be accessed at one go BUS
and total number of pins on the
microprocessor. Total number of input Connection lines used to connect the internal
and output pins in turn determines the parts of the microprocessor chip is called bus.
architecture of the microprocessor. There are three types of buses in a
 First commercial microprocessor Intel microprocessor –
4004 was a 4-bit processor. It had 4
input pins and 4 output pins. Number  Data Bus − Lines that carry data to and
of output pins is always equal to the from memory are called data bus. It is a
number of input pins. Currently most bidirectional bus with width equal to word
microprocessors use 32-bit or 64-bit length of the microprocessor.
architecture.  Address Bus − It is a unidirectional
(c) Instruction Set responsible for carrying address of a
 A command given to a digital machine to memory location or I/O port from CPU to
perform an operation on a piece of data memory or I/O port.
is called an instruction. Basic set of  Control Bus − Lines that carry control
machine level instructions that a signals like clock signals, interrupt signal or
microprocessor is designed to execute is ready signal are called control bus. They
called its instruction set. are bidirectional. Signal that denotes that a
 These instructions do carry out these device is ready for processing is called
types of operations – ready signal. Signal that indicates to a
 Data transfer device to interrupt its process is called an
 Arithmetic operations interrupt signal.
 Logical operations
 Control flow
 Input/output and machine control MEMORY

Memory Microprocessor has two types of

Microprocessor Components memory:

>>Compared to the first microprocessors,  RAM − Random Access Memory is

today’s processors are very small but still they volatile memory that gets erased when
have these basic parts right from the first model power is switched off. All data and
− CPU, Bus and Memory instructions are stored in RAM.
 ROM − Read Only Memory is non-
volatile memory whose data remains intact
even after power is switched off.
Microprocessor can read from it any time it
wants but cannot write to it. It is
preprogrammed with most essential data
like booting sequence by the manufacturer.

CPU

>> CPU is fabricated as a very large scale

integrated circuit (VLSI) and has these parts:
~Instruction register − It holds the
instruction to be executed,

~Decoder − It decodes (converts to machine

level language) the instruction and sends to the
SUMMARY OF THE BASIC TERMS USED IN MICROPROCESSOR

Here is a list of some basic terms used in microprocessor:

 Instruction Set - The group of commands that the microprocessor can understand is called
Instruction set. It is an interface between hardware and software.
 Bus - Set of conductors intended to transmit data, address or control information to different elements
in a microprocessor. A microprocessor will have three types of buses, i.e., data bus, address bus, and
control bus.
 IPC (Instructions Per Cycle) - It is a measure of how many instructions a CPU is capable of
executing in a single clock.
 Clock Speed - It is the number of operations per second the processor can perform. It can be
expressed in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). It is also called the Clock Rate.
 Bandwidth - The number of bits processed in a single instruction is called Bandwidth.
 Word Length - The number of bits the processor can process at a time is called the word length of the
processor. 8-bit Microprocessor may process 8 -bit data at a time. The range of word length is from 4
bits to 64 bits depending upon the type of the microcomputer.
 Data Types - The microprocessor supports multiple data type formats like binary, ASCII, signed and
unsigned numbers