microprocessor

• Microprocessors were first introduced in early 1970s.
• The first general purpose microprocessor, 4004 was developed by Intel Inc
• The microprocessor is a programmable multipurpose silicon chip.

Characteristics of Microprocessors

Microprocessor’s performance depends on the following characteristics:

• Clock speed
• Instruction set
• Word size

Clock Speed

• Every microprocessor has an internal clock that regulates the speed at which it executes instructions.
• The speed at which the microprocessor executes instructions is called the clock speed.
• Clock speed is measured in MHz (Mega Hertz) or in GHz (Giga Hertz).

Instruction Set

• A command which is given to a computer to perform an operation on data is called an instruction.
• Basic set of machine level instructions that a microprocessor is designed to execute is called as an instruction set.

This instruction set carries out the following types of operations:

• Data transfer
• Arithmetic operations
• Logical operations
• Control flow
• Input/output

Word Size

• The number of bits that can be processed by a processor in a single instruction is called its word size.
• Word size determines the amount of RAM that can be accessed by a microprocessor.