Microprocessors & Microcontrollers

A Computer is a programmable machine.

The two principal characteristics of a computer are:
• It responds to a specific set of instructions in a well-defined manner.
• It can execute a prerecorded list of instructions (a program).

Microcomputer: The term microcomputer is generally synonymous with personal

computer, or a computer that depends on a microprocessor.
• Microcomputers are designed to be used by individuals, whether in the form
of PCs, workstations or notebook computers.
• A microcomputer contains a CPU on a microchip (the microprocessor), a
memory system (typically ROM and RAM), a bus system and I/O ports,
typically housed in a motherboard.

Microprocessor: A silicon chip that contains a CPU. In the world of personal

computers, the terms microprocessor and CPU are used interchangeably.
• A microprocessor (sometimes abbreviated μP) is a digital electronic
component with miniaturized transistors on a single semiconductor
integrated circuit (IC).
• One or more microprocessors typically serve as a central processing unit
(CPU) in a computer system or handheld device.
• Microprocessors made possible the advent of the microcomputer.
• At the heart of all personal computers and most working stations sits a
microprocessor.
Component of Microprocessor:
• Control Unit.
• Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
• Registers.
 • Cache.

Basic characteristics that differentiate microprocessors:

• Instruction set: The set of instructions that the microprocessor can execute.
• Bandwidth: The number of bits processed in a single instruction.
• Clock speed: Given in megahertz (MHz), the clock speed determines how
many instructions per second the processor can execute.

CISC Microprocessor:

Complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessors are designed for

executing complex instructions that minimise the total number of instructions per
program. In a complex instruction, there are multiple instructions such as reading
from memory or any arithmetic operation. It requires multiple machine cycles for
executing an instruction due to the large size of instruction set that has multiple
addressing modes in a single instruction.

RISC Microprocessor:

A Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) is designed for executing simple

instructions. The number of instructions is reduced to 30-40. Instructions are
simplified for reducing execution time. The format and the size of these
instructions is fixed and limited. Since the instruction is completed in a clock
cycle, more lines of program code and more memory is required for storing the
instruction. There is less load on hardware and more on either compiler or
software.
Microcontroller: A highly integrated chip that contains all the components
comprising a controller.
• Typically, this includes a CPU, RAM, some form of ROM, I/O ports, and
timers.
• Unlike a general-purpose computer, which also includes all of these
components, a microcontroller is designed for a very specific task - to
control a particular system.
• A microcontroller differs from a microprocessor, which is a general-purpose
chip that is used to create a multi-function computer or device and requires
multiple chips to handle various tasks.
• A microcontroller is meant to be more self-contained and independent, and
functions as a tiny, dedicated computer.
• The great advantage of microcontrollers, as opposed to using larger
microprocessors, is that the parts-count and design costs of the item being
controlled can be kept to a minimum.
• They are typically designed using CMOS (complementary metal oxide
semiconductor) technology, an efficient fabrication technique that uses less
power and is more immune to power spikes than other techniques.
• Microcontrollers are sometimes called embedded microcontrollers, which
just means that they are part of an embedded system that is, one part of a
larger device or system.

Embedded system: A specialized computer system that is part of a larger system

or machine.
• Typically, an embedded system is housed on a single microprocessor board
with the programs stored in ROM.
• Virtually all appliances that have a digital Interface- watches, microwaves,
VCRs, cars -utilize embedded systems.
 • Some embedded systems include an operating system, but many are so
specialized that the entire logic can be implemented as a single program.

Controller: A device that controls the transfer of data from a computer to a

peripheral device and vice versa.
• For example, disk drives, display screens, keyboards and printers all require
controllers.
• In personal computers, the controllers are often single chips.
• When you purchase a computer, it comes with all the necessary controllers
for standard components, such as the display screen, keyboard, and disk
drives.
• If you attach additional devices, however, you may need to insert new
controllers that come on expansion boards.
• Controllers must be designed to communicate with the computer's expansion
bus.

8086 Microprocessor
Some features of 8086 microprocessor:

• 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor and was designed in 1978 by Intel.

• 8086 has a 20-bit address bus can access up to 220 memory locations (1 MB).
• It can support up to 64K I/O ports.
• It provides 14, 16 -bit registers.
• It has multiplexed address and data bus AD0- AD15 and A16 – A19.
• It requires single phase clock with 33% duty cycle to provide internal
timing.
• 8086 is designed to operate in two modes, Minimum and Maximum.
• It can prefetches up to 6 instruction bytes from memory and queues them in
order to speed up instruction execution.
• It requires +5V power supply.
• A 40-pin dual in line package.
Internal Architecture of 8086:
To improve the performance by implementing the parallel processing concept the
8086 microprocessor is divided into sections. They are Execution Unit (EU) and
Bus Interface Unit (BIU).

Bus Interface Unit (BIU):

• BIU consists of a 6-byte long instruction queue,4 segment registers, one
instruction pointer and an address adder. It also provides a 16-bit
bidirectional data bus and a 20-bit address bus. BIU perform all external bus
operations.
• BIU uses a mechanism know as an instruction stream queue to implement a
pipeline architecture.
• It prefetch up to 6 bytes of instruction code and store these instructions in a
FIFO queue (Instruction queue).
 • Whenever the queue isn’t full, it has at least room for two or more bytes and
at the same time EU is not requestion for read or write operands from
memory, then BIU is free to look ahead in the program by prefetching the
next instruction.
• If BIU is in the middle of fetching an instruction and EU request for read or
write operands from memory or I/O, it will first complete the instruction
fetch bus cycle then initiate the operand read or write cycle.
• Address adder is used to generate the 20-bit physical address by combining
16-bit segment address and offset address. These 20 bits addresses are the
output of address bus.

Execution Unit (EU):

• EU consists of Control circuitry, Instruction decoder, ALU, Pointer and
Index register, Flag register. It is responsible for decoding and executing all
instructions.
• The EU extracts instructions from the top of the queue in the BIU, decodes
them, generates operands, if necessary, passes them to the BIU and requests
it to perform the read or write bus cycles to memory or I/O and perform the
operation specified by the instruction on the operands.
• During the execution of the instruction, the EU tests the status and control
flags and updates them based on the results of executing the instruction.
• If the queue is empty, the EU waits for the next instruction byte to be
fetched and shifted to top of the queue.
Signal Description of 8086: The 8086 operates in single processor or
multiprocessor configuration to achieve high performance. The pins serve a
particular function in minimum mode (single processor mode) and other function
in maximum mode configuration (multiprocessor mode).
Minimum and Maximum Modes:
• The minimum mode is selected by applying logic 1 to the MN / MX input
pin. This is a single microprocessor configuration.
• The maximum mode is selected by applying logic 0 to the MN / MX input
pin. This is a multi-microprocessors configuration.
The 8086 signals can be categorized in three groups. The first are the signal having
common functions in minimum as well as maximum mode. The second are the
signals which have special functions for minimum mode and third are the signals
having special functions for maximum mode.
The following signal descriptions are common for both modes.

VCC – Pin number 40 – At this pin, the external power supply of + 5V is provided
to the processor.

VSS – Pin number 1 and 20 – These two pins act as the ground. This pin directs
the extra current of the microprocessor to ground.

AD0 – AD15 – Pin number 2 to 16 and 39 – These are the multiplexed address and
data bus.
We know that the 8086 microprocessor has 20-bit address bus and 16-bit data bus.
So, the 16 lines of the address and data bus are multiplexed together so as to reduce
the number of lines inside the IC.

We are aware of the fact that at a time either address or data will be transmitted by
the bus. So, at a particular time only either the address or the data bus will be
enabled from the multiplexed buses.

A16/S3, A17/S4, A18/S5 and A19S6 – Pin number 35 to 38 – Out of 20 address bits, 4
are present in the multiplexed form with the status signals. In the case of memory
operations, these pins act as an address bus and contain the memory address of any
particular instruction or data.
However, from I/O operations these pins are low that shows the status of the
processor.

Basically, the signal at S3 and S4 show that which segment is currently accessed by
the microprocessor among the four segments present in it.

The table below will show the encoding of S3 and S4:

Also, S5, when enabled, shows the presence of an interrupts in the microprocessor.
So, basically, it serves as an interrupt flag.
The signal at S6 shows the status of the bus master for the current operation. More
simply we can say, whether the 8086 is the bus master or any other proficient
device is acting as the bus master.
When 0 is present as the signal at this pin then it indicates the 8086 is holding the
access of the bus otherwise it is high i.e., 1.

BHE’ / S7 – Pin number 34 – BHE is an acronym for Bus High Enable. The
combination of the BHE signal and S7 status informs about the existence of the
data on the bus. Also, different combinations show whether the bus is containing
overall 16-bit, upper byte or lower byte of the data.

The table below represents the status for the signal at this pin:

MN/MX’ – Pin number 33 –The status at this particular pin shows whether the
processor is operating in the minimum mode or maximum mode.
A signal 0 at this pin informs that the 8086 is operating in maximum mode i.e.,
multiple processors. While signal 1 shows the operation under minimum mode i.e.,
single processor.

RD’ – Pin number 32 – An active low signal at this pin shows that the
microprocessor is performing read operation with either memory or I/O devices.

CLK – Pin number 19 – A signal at this pin provides the timing to the internal
operations that are being executed inside the microprocessor.
NMI – Pin number 17 – NMI is non-maskable interrupt. These are basically
uncontrollable interrupts generated inside the processor. When an NMI occurs,
then an interrupt service routine is generated by the interrupt vector table.

TEST – Pin number 23 – This pin basically shows the wait instruction. Whenever
a low signal at this pin occurs then the processing inside the processor continues.
As against, in case of the high signal, the processor has to wait for the disabling of
this pin.
INTR – Pin number 18 – INTR stands for an interrupt request. The processor
after each clock cycle samples the INTR and if the signal at this pin is found to be
high then the processor controls that interrupt internally.

READY – Pin number 22 – This signal is used by the peripherals and memory
devices in order to show the readiness for the next operation.

RESET – Pin number 21 – Whenever this pin is enabled then it resets the
processor and other devices connected to the system by immediately terminating
the recent task.

The following pin functions are for the minimum mode operation of 8086.

INTA’ – Pin number 24 – It is an interrupt acknowledge pin. Whenever an INTR

signal is generated, then the microprocessor generates INTA signal, as a response
to that interrupt.

ALE – Pin number 25 – ALE is an abbreviation for address latch enable.

Whenever an address is present in the multiplexed address and data bus, then the
microprocessor enables this pin.
This is done to inform the peripherals and memory devices about fetching of the
data or instruction at that memory location.

DEN’ – Pin number 26 – DEN is used for data enable. This is an active low pin
that means whenever a 0 is present at this pin then the transceiver gets enabled and
it separates the data from the multiplexed address and data bus.

DT/R’ (Data Transmit/Receive)– Pin number 27 – This pin is used to show

whether the data is getting transmitted or is received. A high signal at this pin
provides the information regarding the transmission of data. While a low indicates
reception of data.

M/IO’ – Pin number 28 – This pin indicates whether the processor is performing
an operation with memory or I/O devices. Whenever a high is present at this pin
then it shows the operation is carried out through the memory. While a low signal
shows operation through I/O devices.

WR’ – Pin number 29 – An active low signal at this pin indicates that the
processor is performing write operation from either memory or I/O devices.

HOLD – Pin number 31 – When an external device enables this pin then the
processor stops accessing the buses immediately after the recent task gets over.

HLDA – Pin number 30 – This pin is used as a response pin for the hold request.
Once request for accessing the buses is produced by an external entity. Then the
microprocessor acknowledges the device that its request will be considered once it
gets over by the current operation.

The following pin function are applicable for maximum mode operation of
8086.

S0‘, S1‘and S2‘– Pin number 26 to 28 (status line)– These are basically 3 status
pins and are active low. This means that if the status at all the 3 pins is 0 then it
shows that multiple interrupts are to be handled in maximum mode.

The table below is representing the status of the processor in different

combinations:
QS0 and QS1 (Queue status)– Pin number 24 and 25 – These two pins indicate
the status of the 6-byte pre-fetch queue present in the architecture of 8086.

LOCK’ – Pin number 29 –This pin is involved in maximum mode operation. So,
basically, when a single processor is accessing the buses and peripherals then it
locks the resources being used by it. So, that no other entity can access it until the
recent processor frees it.

RQ’/ GT0‘and RQ’/ GT1‘(Request/Grant)– Pin number 30 and 31 – Due to the

involvement of multiple processors, these pins indicate the request and grant
permission for accessing the buses, memory and peripherals.
This is all about the pin diagram and description of the 8086 microprocessor.