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Microprocessor
A microprocessor (abbreviated as µP or uP) is an electronic computer central
processing unit (CPU) made from miniaturized transistors and other circuit elements
on a single semiconductor integrated circuit (IC)
Before the advent of microprocessors, electronic CPUs were made from discrete
(separate) TTL integrated circuits; before that, individual transistors; and before that,
from vacuum tubes. There have even been designs for simple computing machines
based on mechanical parts such as gears, shafts, levers, Tinkertoys, etc. Leonardo
DaVinci made one such design, although none were possible to construct using the
manufacturing techniques of the time.
The evolution of microprocessors have been known to follow Moore's Law
when it comes to steadily increasing performance over the years. This suggests that
computing power will double every eighteen months, a process that has been
generally followed since the early 1970's — a surprise to everyone involved. From
humble beginnings as the drivers for calculators, the continued increase in power has
led to the dominance of microprocessors over every other form of computer; every
system from the largest mainframes to the smallest handheld computers now use a
microprocessor at their core.
History
The first chips
As with many advances in technology, the microprocessor was an idea whose time
had come. Three projects arguably delivered a complete microprocessor at about the
same time, Intel's 4004, Texas Instruments' TMS 1000, and Garrett AiResearch's
Central Air Data Computer.
In 1968 Garrett was invited to produce a digital computer to compete with
electromechanical systems then under development for the main flight control
computer in the US Navy's new F-14 Tomcat fighter. The design was complete by
1970, and used a MOS-based chipset as the core CPU. The design was smaller and
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much more reliable than the mechanical systems it competed against, and was used
in all of the early Tomcat models. However the system was considered so advanced
that the Navy refused to allow publication of the design, and continued to refuse until
1997. For this reason the CADC, and the MP944 chipset it used, are fairly unknown
even today.
TI developed the 4-bit TMS 1000 and stressed pre-programmed embedded
applications, introducing a version called the TMS1802NC on September 17, 1971,
which implemented a calculator on a chip. The Intel chip was the 4-bit 4004, released
on November 15, 1971, developed by Federico Faggin.
TI filed for the patent on the microprocessor. Gary Boone was awarded for the singlechip microprocessor architecture on September 4, 1973. It may never be known which
company actually had the first working microprocessor running on the lab bench. In
both 1971 and 1976, Intel and TI entered into broad patent cross-licensing
agreements, with Intel paying royalties to TI for the microprocessor patent. A nice
history of these events is contained in court documentation from a legal dispute
between Cyrix and Intel, with TI as and owner of the microprocessor patent.
Interestingly, a third party claims to have been awarded a patent which might cover
the "microprocessor". See a webpage claiming an inventor pre-dating both TI and
Intel, describing a "microcontroller", which may or may not count as a
"microprocessor".
A computer-on-a-chip is a variation of a microprocessor which combines the
microprocessor core (CPU), some memory, and I/O (input/output) lines, all on one
chip. The computer-on-a-chip patent, called the microcomputer patent at the time, ,
was awarded to Gary Boone and Michael J. Cochran of TI. Aside from this patent the
proper meaning of microcomputer is a computer using a (number of)
microprocessor(s) as its CPU(s), while the concept of the patent is somewhat more
similar to a microcontroller.
According to A History of Modern Computing, (MIT Press), pp. 220–21,
Intel entered into a contract with Computer Terminals Corporation, later called
Datapoint, of San Antonio TX, for a chip for a terminal they were designing. Datapoint
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later decided not to use the chip, and Intel marketed it as the 8008 in April, 1972. This
was the world's first 8-bit microprocessor. It was the basis for the famous "Mark-8"
computer kit advertised in the magazine Radio-Electronics. The 8008 and its
successor, the world-famous 8080, opened up the microprocessor component
marketplace.
Notable 8-bit designs
The 4004 was later followed by the 8008, the world's first 8-bit microprocessor. These
processors are the precursors to the very successful Intel 8080 Zilog Z80, and
derivative Intel 8-bit processors. The competing Motorola 6800 architecture was
cloned and improved in the MOS Technology 6502, rivaling the Z80 in popularity
during the 1980s.
Both the Z80 and 6502 concentrated on low overall cost, through a combination of
small packaging, simple computer bus requirements, and the inclusion of circuitry
that would normally have to be provided in a separate chip (for instance, the Z80
included a memory controller). It was these features that allowed the home computer
"revolution" to take off in the early 1980s, eventually delivering semi-usable machines
that sold for US$99.
Motorola trumped the entire 8-bit world by introducing the MC6809, arguably one of
the most powerful, orthogonal, and clean 8-bit microprocessor designs ever fielded –
and also one of the most complex hardwired logic designs that ever made it into
production for any microprocessor. Microcoding replaced hardwired logic at about
this point in time for all designs more powerful than the MC6809 – specifically
because the design requirements were getting too complex for hardwired logic.
Another early 8-bit microprocessor was the Signetics 2650, which enjoyed a brief
flurry of interest due to its innovative and powerful instruction set architecture.
A seminal microprocessor in the world of spaceflight was RCA's RCA 1802(aka
CDP1802, RCA COSMAC) which was used in NASA's Voyager and Viking spaceprobes
of the 1970s, and onboard the Galileo probe to Jupiter (launched 1989, arrived 1995).
The CDP1802 was used because it could be run at very low power,* and because its
production process (Silicon on Sapphire) ensured much better protection against
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cosmic radiation and electrostatic discharges than that of any other processor of the
era; thus, the 1802 is said to be the first radiation-hardened microprocessor.
16-bit
The first multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor was the National Semiconductor IMP-16,
introduced in early 1973. An 8-bit version of the chipset introduced in 1974 as the IMP8. In 1975, National introduced the first 16-bit single-chip microproessor, the PACE,
which was later followed by an NMOS version, the INS8900.
Other early multi-chip 16-bit microprocessors include one used by Digital Equipment
Corporation (DEC) in the LSI-11 OEM board set and the packaged PDP 11/03
minicomputer, and the Fairchild Semiconductor MicroFlame 9440, both of which were
introduced in the 1975 to 1976 timeframe.
Another early single-chip 16-bit microprocessor was TI's TMS 9900, which was also
compatible with their TI 990 line of minicomputers. The 9900 was used in the TI 990/4
minicomputer, the TI-99/4A home computer, and the TM990 line of OEM
microcomputer boards. The chip was packaged in a large ceramic 64-pin DIP package
package, while most 8-bit microprocessors such as the Intel 8080 used the more
common, smaller, and less expensive 40-pin DIP. A follow-on chip, the TMS 9980, was
designed to compete with the Intel 8080, had the full TI 990 16-bit instruction set, used
a plastic 40-pin package, moved data 8 bits at a time, but could only address 16 KB. A
third chip, the TMS 9995, was a new design. The family later expanded to include the
99105 and 99110.
Intel followed a different path, having no minicomputers to emulate, and instead
"upsized" their 8080 design into the 16-bit Intel 8086, the first member of the x86
family which powers most modern PC type computers. Intel introduced the 8086 as a
cost effective way of porting software from the 8080 lines, and succeeded in winning
much business on that premise. Following up their 8086 and 8088, Intel released the
80186, 80286 and, in 1985, the 32-bit 80386, cementing their PC market dominance
with the processor family's backwards compatibility.
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The integrated microprocessor memory management unit (MMU) was developed by
Childs et al. of Intel, and awarded US patent number 4,442,484.
32-bit designs
16-bit designs were in the market only briefly when full 32-bit implementations started
to appear.
The world's first single-chip 32-bit microprocessor was the AT&T Bell Labs BELLMAC32A, with first samples in 1980, and general production in 1982 (See this webpage for
a bibliographic reference and this webpage for a general reference). After the
divestiture of AT&T in 1984, it was renamed the WE 32000 (WE for Western Electric),
and had two follow-on generations, the WE 32100 and WE 32200. These
microprocessors were used in the AT&T 3B5 and 3B15 minicomputers; in the 3B2, the
world's first desktop supermicrocomputer; in the "Companion", the world's first 32-bit
laptop computer; and in "Alexander", the world's first book-sized
supermicrocomputer, featuring ROM-pack memory cartridges similar to today's
gaming consoles. All these systems ran the original Bell Labs UNIX Operating
System, which included the first Windows-type software called xt-layers.
The most famous of the 32-bit designs is the MC68000, introduced in 1979. The 68K,
as it was widely known, had 32-bit registers but used 16-bit internal data paths, and a
16-bit external data bus to reduce pin count. Motorola generally described it as a 16bit processor, though it clearly has 32-bit architecture. The combination of high
speed, large (16 megabyte) memory space and fairly low costs made it the most
popular CPU design of its class. The Apple Lisa and Macintosh designs made use of
the 68000, as did a host of other designs in the mid-1980s, including the Atari ST and
Commodore Amiga.
Intel's first 32-bit microprocessor was the iAPX 432, which was introduced in 1981 but
was not a commercial success. It had an advanced capability-based object-oriented
architecture, but poor performance compared to other competing architectures such
as the Motorola 68000.
Motorola's success with the 68000 led to the MC68010, which added virtual memory
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support. The MC68020, introduced in 1985 added full 32-bit data and address busses.
The 68020 became hugely popular in the Unix supermicrocomputer market, and many
small companies (e.g., Altos, Charles River Data Systems) produced desktop-size
systems. Following this with the MC68030, which added the MMU into the chip, the
68K family became the processor for everything that wasn't running DOS. The
continued success led to the MC68040, which included a FPU for better math
performance. An 68050 failed to achieve its performance goals and was not released,
and the follow-up MC68060 was released into a market saturated by much faster RISC
designs. The 68K family faded from the desktop in the early 1990s.
Other large companies designed the 68020 and follow-ons into embedded equipment.
At one point, there were more 68020s in embedded equipment than there were Intel
Pentiums in PCs (See this webpage for this embedded usage information). The
ColdFire processor cores are derivatives of the venerable 68020.
During this time (early to mid 1980s), National Semiconductor introduced a very
similar 16-bit pinout, 32-bit internal microprocessor called the NS 16032 (later
renamed 32016), the full 32-bit version named the NS 32032, and a line of 32-bit
industrial OEM microcomputers. By the mid-1980s, Sequent introduced the first
symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) server-class computer using the NS 32032. This was
one of the designs few wins, and it disappeared in the late 1980s.
Other designs included the interesting Zilog Z8000, which arrived too late to market to
stand a chance and disappeared quickly.
In the late 1980s, "microprocessor wars" started killing off some of the
microprocessors. Apparently, with only one major design win, Sequent, the NS 32032
just faded out of existence, and Sequent switched to Intel microprocessors.
64 bit microchips
Though RISC (see below) based designs featured the first crop of 64 bit processors
long before the current mainstream PC microchips from AMD & Intel, they were
limited to proprietary OSes. However with AMD's introduction of the first 64-bit chip
Athlon 64, followed by Intel's own 64 bit chips, the 64 bit race has truly begun. Both
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processors are also backward compatible meaning they can run 32 bit legacy apps as
well as the new 64 bit software. With 64 bit Windows XP and Linux that runs on 64
bits, the software too is geared to utilise the full power of such processors.
RISC
In the mid-1980s to early-1990s, a crop of new high-performance RISC (reduced
instruction set computer) microprocessors appeared, which were initially used in
special purpose machines and Unix workstations, but have since become almost
universal in all roles except the Intel-standard desktop.
The first commercial design was released by MIPS Technology, the 32-bit R2000 (the
R1000 was not released). The R3000 made the design truly practical, and the R4000
introduced the world's first 64-bit design. Competing projects would result in the IBM
POWER and Sun SPARC systems, respectively. Soon every major vendor was
releasing a RISC design, including the AT&T CRISP, AMD 29000, Intel i860 and Intel
i960, Motorola 88000, DEC Alpha and the HP-PA.
Market forces have "weeded out" many of these designs, leaving the POWER and the
derived PowerPC as the main desktop RISC processor, with the SPARC being used in
Sun designs only. MIPS continues to supply some SGI systems, but is primarily used
as an embedded design, notably in Cisco routers. The rest of the original crop of
designs have either disappeared, or are about to. Other companies have attacked
niches in the market, notably ARM, originally intended for home computer use but
since focussed at the embedded processor market. Today RISC designs based on the
MIPS, ARM or PowerPC core power the vast majority of computing devices.
Of course, in the IBM-compatible PC world, Intel, AMD, and now VIA of Taiwan all
make x86-compatible microprocessors. In 64-bit computing, the DEC(-Intel) ALPHA,
the AMD 64, and the HP-Intel Itanium are the most popular designs as of late 2004.
x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and
manufactured by Intel.
The architecture is called x86 because the earliest processors in this family were
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identified only by numbers ending in the sequence "86": the 8086, the 80186, the
80286, the 386, and the 486. Because one cannot trademark numbers, Intel and most
of its competitors began to use trademarkable names such as Pentium for subsequent
generations of processors, but the earlier naming scheme has stuck as a term for the
entire family. Intel now refers to x86 as IA-32, an abbreviation for Intel Architecture,
32-bit.
Intel 8085
The Intel 8085 is an 8-bit microprocessor made by Intel in the mid-1970s It was binary
compatible with the more-famous Intel 8080 but required less supporting hardware,
thus allowing simpler and less expensive microcomputer systems to be built.
The "5" in the model number came from the fact that the 8085 required only a 5-volt
power supply rather than the 5V and 12V supplies the 8080 needed. Both processors
were sometimes used in computers running the CP/M operating system
, and the 8085 later saw use as a microcontroller (much by virtue of its component
count reducing feature). Both designs were later eclipsed by the compatible but more
capable Zilog Z80, which took over most of the CP/M computer market as well as
taking a large share of the booming home computer market in the early-to-mid-1980s.
The 8085 can access 65,536 individual memory locations, but can only access one at a
time, because it is an eight bit microprocessor and each operation requires eight bits
to preform it. Unlike some other microprocessors of its era, it has a separate address
space for up to 256 I/O ports. It also has a built in register array which are usually
labeled A,B,C,D,E,H and L. The microprocessor also has three hardware based HALT
operations which are found in pin 7 pin 8 and pin 9, these are called RST 7.5, RST 6.5,
and RST 5.5 respectively. RST 7.5 is used in case of a power surge.
8-bit
8-bit CPUs normally use an 8-bit data bus and a 16-bit address bus which means that
their address space is limited to 64 kilobytes; this is not a "natural law", however, and
thus there are exceptions.
The first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many
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hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M. The
Zilog Z80 (compatible with the 8080) and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar
computers. The Z80 and the MOS Technology 6502 8-bit CPUs were widely used in
home computers and game consoles of the 70s and 80s. Many 8-bit CPUs or
microcontrollers are the basis of today's ubiquitous embedded systems
There are 28 (256) possible permutations for 8 bits.
Address space
In computing, an address space defines a context in which an address makes sense.
Two addresses may be numerically the same, but refer to different things, if they
belong to different address spaces.
Some example address spaces include:
Main memory(physical memory)
Virtual memory
I/O port space
IP address
house numbers on street addresses
In general, things in one address space are physically in a different location than
things in another address space. For example, "house number 101 South" on one
particular southward street is completely different from any house number (not
just the 101st house) on a different southward street.
However, sometimes different address spaces overlap (some physical location
exists in both address spaces). When overlapping address spaces are not aligned,
translation is necessary. For example, virtual-to-physical address translation is
necessary to translate addresses in the virtual memory address space to ddresses
in physical address space -- one physical address, and one or more numerically
different virtual address, all refer to the same physical byte of RAM.
Many programmers prefer to use a flat memory model, in which there is no
distinction between code space, data space, and virtual memory-- in other words,
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numerically identical pointers refer to exactly the same byte of RAM in all three
address spaces.
Unfortunately, many early computers did not support a flat memory model -- in
particular, Harvard architecture machines force program storage to be completely
separate from data storage.
Many modern DSPs (such as the Motorola 56000) have 3 separate storage areas -program storage, coefficient storage, and data storage. Some commonly-used
instructions fetch from all three areas simultaneously -fewer storage areas (even if there were the same or more total bytes of storage)
would make those instructions run slower. 3 storage areas merely a type of
Harvard architecture,or does "Harvard" imply exactly 2 storage areas ?
In the Linux kernel, address spaces include:
Kernel memory
User memory, accessed through copy_to_user(), copy_from_user and
similar functions
I/O memory, accessed through readb(), writel(), memcpy_toio(), etc.
Primary storage
Primary storage is a category of computer storage, often called main memory.
Confusingly, the term primary storage has recently been used in a few contexts to
refer to online storage (hard disk), which is usually classified as secondary storage.
Primary storage is used to store data that is likely to be in active use, so it is usually
faster than long-term secondary storage. Today, many computers have cache memory
located in between the central processing unit and primary storage in order to further
increase speed.
A particular location in storage is selected by its physical memory address. That
address remains the same, no matter how the particular value stored there changes.
Over the history of computing, a variety of technologies have been used for primary
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storage. Today, we are most familiar with random access memory (RAM) made out of
many small integrated circuits. Some early computers used mercury delay lines, in
which a series of acoustic pulses were sent along a tube filled with mercury. When the
pulse reached the end of the tube, the circuitry detected whether the pulse
represented a binary 1 or 0 and caused the oscillator at the beginning of the line to
repeat the pulse. Other early computers stored RAM on high-speed magnetic drums.
Modern primary storage devices include:
Random access memory (RAM) - includes VRAM WRAM NVRAM
Read-only memory (ROM)
Before the use of integrated circuits for memory became widespread, primary storage
was implemented in many different forms:
Williams tube
Delay line memory
Drum memory
Core memory
Twistor memory
Bubble memory
Virtual memory
Virtual memory is a computerdesign feature that permits software to use more main
memory (the memory which the CPU can read and write to directly) than the computer
actually physically possesses.
Most computers possess four kinds of memory: registers in the CPU, caches both
inside and adjacent to the CPU, physical memory, generally in the form of RAM which
the CPU can read and write to directly and reasonably quickly; and disk storage which
is much slower, but also much larger. Many applications require access to more
information (codeas well as data) than can be stored in physical memory. This is
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especially true when the operating system is one that wishes to allow multiple
processes/applications to run seemingly in parallel. The obvious response to the
problem of the maximum size of the physical memory being less than that required for
all running programs is for the application to keep some of its information on the disk,
and move it back and forth to physical memory as needed, but there are a number of
ways to do this.
One option is for the application software itself to be responsible both for deciding
which information is to be kept where, and also for moving it back and forth. The
programmer would do this by determining which sections of the program (and also its
data) were mutually exclusive and then arranging for loading and unloading the
appropriate sections from physical memory, as needed. The disadvantage of this
approach is that each application's programmer must spend time and effort on
designing, implementing, and debuggingthis mechanism, instead of focusing on their
application; this hampered programmers' efficiency. Also, if any programmer could
truly choose which of their items of data to store in the physical memory at any one
time, they could easily conflict with the decisions made by another programmer, who
also wanted to use all the available physical memory at that point.
The alternative is to use virtual memory, in which a combination of special hardware
and operating system software makes use of both kinds of memory to make it look as
if the computer has a much larger main memory than it actually does. It does this in a
way that is invisible to the rest of the software running on the computer. It usually
provides the ability to simulate a main memory of almost any size (as limited by the
size of the addresses being used by the operating system and cpu; the total size of
the Virtual Memory can be 232 for a 32 bit system, or approximately 4 Gigabytes, while
newer 64 bit chips and operating systems use 64 or 48 bit addresses and can index
much more virtual memory).
This makes the job of the application programmer much simpler. No matter how much
memory the application needs, it can act as if it has access to a main memory of that
size. The programmer can also completely ignore the need to manage the moving of
data back and forth between the different kinds of memory.
In technical terms, virtual memory allows software to run in a memory address space
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whose size and addressing are not necessarily tied to the computer's physical
memory. While conceivably virtual memory could be implemented solely by operating
system software, in practice its implementation almost universally uses a combination
of hardware and operating system software.
Basic operation
When virtual memory is used, or when a main memory location is read or written to by
the CPU, hardware within the computer translates the address of the memory location
generated by the software (the virtual memory address) into either:
the address of a real memory location (the physical memory address) which is
assigned within the computer's physical memory to hold that memory item, or
an indication that the desired memory item is not currently resident in main
memory (a so-called virtual memory exception)
In the former case, the memory reference operation is completed, just as if the virtual
memory were not involved. In the latter case, the operating system is invoked to
handle the situation, since the actions needed before the program can continue are
usually quite complex.
The effect of this is to swap sections of information between the physical memory and
the disk; the area of the disk which holds the information which is not currently in
physical memory is called the swap file, page file, or swap partition (on some
operating systems it is a dedicated partition of a disk).
Details
The translation from virtual to physical addresses is implemented by an MMU. This
may be either a module of the CPU, or an auxiliary, closely coupled chip.
The operating system is responsible for deciding which parts of the program's
simulated main memory are kept in physical memory. The operating system also
maintains the translation tables which provide the mappings between virtual and
physical addresses, for use by the MMU. Finally, when a virtual memory exception
occurs, the operating system is responsible for allocating an area of physical memory
to hold the missing information, bringing the relevant information in from the disk,
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updating the translation tables, and finally resuming execution of the software that
incurred the virtual memory exception.
In most computers, these translation tables are stored in physical memory. Therefore,
a virtual memory reference might actually involve two or more physical memory
references: one or more to retrieve the needed address translation from the page
tables, and a final one to actually do the memory reference.
To minimize the performance penalty of address translation, most modern CPUs
include an on-chip MMU, and maintain a table of recently used physical-to-virtual
translations, called a Translation Lookaside Buffer, or TLB. Addresses with entries in
the TLB require no additional memory references (and therefore time) to translate,
However, the TLB can only maintain a fixed number of mappings between virtual and
physical addresses; when the needed translation is not resident in the TLB, action will
have to be taken to load it in.
On some processors, this is performed entirely in hardware; the MMU has to do
additional memory references to load the required translations from the translation
tables, but no other action is needed. In other processors, assistance from the
operating system is needed; an exception is raised, and on this exception, the
operating system replaces one of the entries in the TLB with an entry from the
translation table, and the instruction which made the original memory reference is
restarted.
The hardware that supports virtual memory almost always supports memory
protection mechanisms as well. The MMU may have the ability to vary its operation
according to the type of memory reference (for read, write or execution), as well as the
privilege mode of the CPU at the time the memory reference was made. This allows
the operating system to protect its own code and data (such as the translation tables
used for virtual memory) from corruption by an erroneous application program and to
protect application programs from each other and (to some extent) from themselves
(e.g. by preventing writes to areas of memory which contain code).Paging and virtual
memory
Virtual memory is usually (but not necessarily) implemented using paging. In paging,
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the low order bits of the binary representation of the virtual address are preserved,
and used directly as the low order bits of the actual physical address; the high order
bits are treated as a key to one or more address translation tables, which provide the
high order bits of the actual physical address.
For this reason a range of consecutive addresses in the virtual address space whose
size is a power of two will be translated in a corresponding range of consecutive
physical addresses. The memory referenced by such a range is called a page. The
page size is typically in the range of 512 to 8192 bytes (with 4K currently being very
common), though page sizes of 4 megabytes or larger may be used for special
purposes. (Using the same or a related mechanism, contiguous regions of virtual
memory larger than a page are often mappable to contiguous physical memory for
purposes other than virtualization, such as setting access and caching control bits.)
The operating system stores the address translation tables, the mappings from virtual
to physical page numbers, in a data structure known as a page table,
If a page that is marked as unavailable (perhaps because it is not present in physical
memory, but instead is in the swap area), when the CPU tries to reference a memory
location in that page, the MMU responds by raising an exception (commonly called a
page fault) with the CPU, which then jumps to a routine in the operating system. If the
page is in the swap area, this routine invokes an operation called a page swap, to
bring in the required page.
The page swap operation involves a series of steps. First it selects a page in memory,
for example, a page that has not been recently accessed and (preferably) has not been
modified since it was last read from disk or the swap area. (See page replacement
algorithms for details.) If the page has been modified, the process writes the modified
page to the swap area. The next step in the process is to read in the information in the
needed page (the page corresponding to the virtual address the original program was
trying to reference when the exception occurred) from the swap file. When the page
has been read in, the tables for translating virtual addresses to physical addresses are
updated to reflect the revised contents of the physical memory. Once the page swap
completes, it exits, and the program is restarted and continues on as if nothing had
happened, returning to the point in the program that caused the exception.
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It is also possible that a virtual page was marked as unavailable because the page was
never previously allocated. In such cases, a page of physical memory is allocated and
filled with zeros, the page table is modified to describe it, and the program is restarted
as above.
Additional details
One additional advantage of virtual memory is that it allows a computer to multiplex
its CPU and memory between multiple programs without the need to perform
expensive copying of the programs' memory images. If the combination of virtual
memory system and operating system supports swapping, then the computer may be
able to run simultaneous programs whose total size exceeds the available physical
memory. Since most programs have a small subset (active set) of pages that they
reference over significant periods of their execution, the performance penalty is less
than that which might be expected. If too many programs are run at once, or if a single
program continuously accesses widely scattered memory locations, then page
swapping becomes excessively frequent and overall system performance will become
unacceptably slow. This is often called thrashing (since the disk is being excessively
overworked - thrashed) or paging storm, which corresponds to accessing the swap
medium being three orders of magnitude slower compared to main memory access.
Note that virtual memory is not a requirement for precompilation of software, even if
the software is to be executed on a multiprogramming system. Precompiled software
loaded by the operating system has the opportunity to carry out address relocation at
load time. This suffers by comparison with virtual memory in that a copy of program
relocated at load time cannot run at a distinct address once it has started execution.
It is possible to avoid the overhead of address relocation using a process called
rebasing, which uses metadata in the executable image header to guarantee to the
run-time loader that the image will only run within a certain virtual address space. This
technique is used on the system libraries on Win32 platforms, for example.
In embedded systems, swapping is typically not supported.
Systems with a large amount of RAM can create a virtual hard disk within the RAM
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itself. This does block some of the RAM from being available for other system tasks
but it does considerably speed up access to the swap file itself.
Processor register
In computer architecture, a processor register is a small amount of very fast computer
memory used to speed the execution of computer programs by providing quick
access to commonly used values—typically, the values being in the midst of a
calculation at a given point in time.
These registers are the top of the memory hierarchy, and are the fastest way for the
system to manipulate data. Registers are normally measured by the number of bits
they can hold, for example, an "8-bitregister" or a "32-bit register". Registers are now
usually implemented as a register file, but they have also been implemented using
individual flip-flops, high speed core memory, thin film memory, and other ways in
various machines.
The term is often used to refer only to the group of registers that can be directly
indexed for input or output of an instruction, as defined by the instruction set. More
properly, these are called the "architected registers". For instance, the x86 instruction
set defines a set of eight 32-bit registers, but a CPU that implements the x86
instruction set will contain many more hardware registers than just these eight.
There are several other classes of registers:
Data registers are used to store integer numbers (see also Floating Point
Registers, below). In some simple/older CPUs, a special data register is the
accumulator, used for arithmetic calculations.
Address registers hold memory addresses and are used to access memory. In
some simple/older CPUs, a special address register is the index register (one or more
of these may be present)
General Purpose registers (GPRs) can store both data and addresses, i.e., they
are combined Data/Address registers.
Floating Point registers (FPRs) are used to store floating point
Constant registers hold read-only values (e.g., zero, one, pi, ...).
Vector registers hold data for vector processing done by SIMD instructions
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(Single Instruction, Multiple Data).
Special Purpose registers store internal CPU data, like the program counter
(aka instruction pointer), stack pointer, and status register (aka processor status
word).
In some architectures, model-specific registers (also called machine-specific
registers) store data and settings related to the processor itself. Because their
meanings are attached to the design of a specific processor, they cannot be expected
to remain standard between processor generations.
Memory segment
On the Intel x86 architecture, a memory segment is the portion of memory which may
be addressed by a single index register without changing a 16-bit segment selector. In
real mode or protected mode on the 80286 processor (or V86 mode on the 80386 and
later processors), a segment is 64 kilobytes in size (using 16-bit index registers). In
32-bit protected mode, available in 80386 and subsequent processors, a segment is 4
gigabytes (due to 32-bit index registers).
In 16-bit mode, enabling applications to make use of multiple memory segments (in
order to access more memory than available in any one 64K-segment) was quite
complex, but was viewed as a necessary evil for all but the smallest tools (which
could do with less memory). The root of the problem was that no appropriate addressarithmetic instructions suitable for flat addressing of the entire memory range were
available. Flat addressing is possible by applying multiple instructions, which
however leads to slower programs.
The introduction of 32-bit operating systems and the more comfortable 32-bit flat
memory model has resulted in the almost elimination in use of segmented addressing
towards the end of the 1990s. However, using the flat memory model has resulted in
the 4 gigabyte limit not being far from everyday use. Segmentation allows operating
systems to make the limit a per-process virtual address space issue, utilizing up to a
maximum of 64 gigabytes of system memory, but the reluctance to eventually return
to segmentation is often cited as motivation to move towards 64-bit processors.
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Computer bus
In computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data or power between
computer components inside a computer or between computers. Unlike a point-topoint connection, a bus can logically connect several peripheral s over the same set
of wires.
Early computer buses were literally parallel electrical buses with multiple
connections, but the term is now used for any physical arrangement that provides the
same logical functionality as a parallel electrical bus. Modern computer buses can use
both parallel and bit-serial connections, and can be wired in either a multidrop
(electrical parallel) or daisy chain topology, or connected by switched hubs, as in the
case of USB.
Intel 8086
The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel in 1978, which gave rise to
the x86 architecture. Shortly later the Intel 8088 was introduced with an external 8-bit
bus, allowing the use of cheap chipsets. It was based on the design of the 8080 and
8085 (it was assembly languagewith the 8080) with a similar register set, but was
expanded to 16 bits. The Bus Interface Unit fed the instruction stream to the Execution
Unit through a 6 byte prefetch queue, so fetch and execution were concurrent – a
primitive form of pipelining (8086 instructions varied from 1 to 4 bytes).
It featured four 16-bit general registers, which could also be accessed as eight 8-bit
registers, and four 16-bit index registers (including the stack pointer). The data
registers were often used implicitly by instructions, complicating register allocation
for temporary values. It featured 64K 8-bit I/O (or 32K 16 bit) ports and fixed vectored
interrupts. Most instructions could only access one memory location, so one operand
had to be a register. The result was stored in one of the operands.
There were also four segment registers that could be set from index registers. The
segment registers allowed the CPU to access one megabyte of memory in an odd way.
Rather than just supplying missing bytes, as in most segmented processors, the 8086
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shifted the segment register left 4 bits and added it to the address. As a result
segments overlapped, which most people consider to have been poor design.
Although this was largely acceptable (and even useful) for assembly language, where
control of the segments was complete, it caused confusion in languages which make
heavy use of pointers (such as C). It made efficient representation of pointers difficult,
and made it possible to have two pointers with different values pointing to the same
location. Worse, this scheme made expanding the address space to more than one
megabyte difficult. Effectively, it was expanded by changing the addressing scheme in
the 80286.
The processor runs at clock speeds between 4.77 (in the original IBM PC) and 10 MHz.
Typical execution times in cycles (estimates):
addition: 3–4 (register), 9+EA–25+EA (memory access)
multiplication: 70–118 (register), 76+EA–143+EA (memory access)
move: 2 (register), 8+EA–14+EA (memory access)
near jump: 11–15, 18+EA (memory access)
far jump: 15, 24+EA (memory access)
EA: time to compute effective address, ranging from 5 to 12 cycles
The 8086 did not contain any floating point instructions, but could be connected to a
mathematical coprocessors to add this capability. The Intel 8087 was the standard
version, but manufacturers like Weitek soon offered higher performance alternatives.
Microcomputers using the 8086
The first commercial microcomputer built on the basis of the 8086 was the Mycron
2000.
The IBM Displaywriter word processing machine also used the 8086. The most
influential microcomputer of all, the IBM PC, used the 8-bit variant, the Intel 8088.
History
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The x86 architecture first appeared inside the Intel 8086 CPU in 1978; the 8086 was a
development of the 8008 processor (which itself followed the 4004). It was adopted (in
the simpler 8088 version) three years later as the standard CPU of the IBM PC. The
ubiquity of the PC platform has resulted in the x86 becoming one of the most
successful CPU architectures ever.
Other companies also manufacture or have manufactured CPUs conforming to the x86
architecture: examples include Cyrix (now owned by VIA Technologies), NEC
Corporation, IBM, IDT, and Transmeta. The most successful of the clone
manufacturers has been AMD, whose Athlon series is a close second to the Pentium
series for popularity.
The 8086 was a 16-bit processor; the architecture remained 16-bit until 1985, when the
32-bit 80386 was developed. Subsequent processors represented refinements of the
32-bit architecture, introducing various extensions, until in 2003 AMD developed a 64bit extension to the architecture in the form of the AMD64 standard, introduced with
the Opteron processor family, which was also adopted a few years later (under a
different name) in a new generation of Intel Pentiums.
Note that Intel also introduced a separate 64-bit architecture used in its Itanium
processors which it calls IA-64 or more recently IPF (Itanium Processor Family). IA-64
is a completely new system that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the x86
architecture; it should not be confused with IA-32, which is essentially synonymous
with x86.
Design
The x86 architecture is essentially CISC with variable instruction length. Word sized
memory access is allowed to unaligned memory addresses. Words are stored in the
little-endian order. Backwards compatibility has always been a driving force behind
the development of the x86 architecture (the design decisions this has required are
often criticised, particularly by proponents of competing processors, who are
frustrated by the continued success of an architecture widely perceived as
quantifiably inferior). Modern x86 processors translate the x86 instruction set to more
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RISC-like micro-instructions upon which modern micro-architectural techniques can
be applied.
Note that the names for instructions and registers (mnemonics) that appear in this
brief review are the ones specified in Intel documentation and used by Intel (and
compatible, eg. Microsoft's MASM, Borland's TASM, CAD-UL's as386, etc.)
assemblers. An instruction that is specified in the Intel syntax by mov al, 30h is
equivalent to AT&T-syntax movb $0x30, %al, and both translate to the two bytes of
machine code B0 30 (hexadecimal). You can see that there is no trace left in this code
of either "mov" or "al", which are the original Intel mnemonics. If we wanted, we could
write an assembler that would produce the same machine code from the command
"move immediate byte hexadecimally encoded 30 into low half of the first register".
However, the convention is to stick to Intel's original mnemonics.
The x86 assembly language is discussed in more detail in the x86 assembly language
article.
Real mode
Intel 8086 and 8088 had 14 16-bit registers. Four of them (AX, BX, CX, DX) were
general purpose (although each had also an additional purpose; for example only CX
can be used as a counter with the loop instruction). Each could be accessed as two
separate bytes (thus BX's high byte can be accessed as BH and low byte as BL). In
addition to them, there are 4 segment registers (CS, DS, SS and ES). They are used to
form a memory address. There are 2 pointer registers (SP which points to the bottom
of the stack, and BP which can be used to point at some other place in the stack or
the memory). There are two index registers (SI and DI) which can be used to point
inside an array. Finally, there are the flag register (containing flags such as carry,
overflow, zero and so on), and the instruction pointer (IP) which points at the current
instruction.
In real mode, memory access is segmented. This is done by shifting the segment
address left by 4 bits and adding an offset in order to receive a final 20-bit address.
Thus the total address space in real mode is 220 bytes, or 1 MB, quite an impressive
figure for 1978. There are two addressing modes: near and far. In far mode, both the
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segment and the offset are specified. In near mode, only the offset is specified, and
the segment is taken from the appropriate register. For data the register is DS, for
code is CS, and for stack it is SS. For example, if DS is A000h and SI is 5677h, DS:SI
will point at the absolute address DS × 16 + SI = A5677h.
In this scheme, two different segment/offset pairs can point at a single absolute
location. Thus, if DS is A111h and SI is 4567h, DS:SI will point at the same A5677h as
above. In addition to duplicity, this scheme also makes it impossible to have more
than 4 segments at once. Moreover, CS, DS and SS are vital for the correct functioning
of the program, so that only ES can be used to point somewhere else. This scheme,
which was intended as a compatibility measure with the Intel 8085 has caused no end
of grief to programmers.
In addition to the above-said, the 8086 also had 64K of 8-bit (or alternatively 32K of 16bit) I/O space, and a 64K (one segment) stack in memory supported by hardware. Only
words (2 bytes) can be pushed to the stack. The stack grows downwards, its bottom
being pointed by SS:SP. There are 256 interrupts, which can be created by both
hardware and software. The interrupts can cascade, using the stack to store the return
address.
16-bit protected mode
The Intel 80286 could support 8086 real mode 16-bit software without any changes,
however it also supported another mode of work called the protected mode, which
expanded addressable physical memory to 16MB and addressable virtual memory to
1GB. This was done by using the segment registers only for storing an index to a
segment table. There were two such tables, the GDT and the LDT, holding each up to
8192 segment descriptors, each segment giving access to up to 64 KB of memory.
The segment table provided a 24-bit base address, which could then be added to the
desired offset to create an absolute address. In addition, each segment could be given
one of four privilege levels (called the rings).
Although the introductions were an improvement, they were not widely used because
a protected mode operating system could not run existing real mode software as
processes. Such capability only appeared with the virtual 8086 mode of the
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subsequent 80386 processor.
In the meantime, operating systems like OS/2 tried to ping-pong the processor
between protected and real modes. This was both slow and unsafe, as in real mode a
program could easily crash the computer. OS/2 also defined restrictive programming
rules which allowed a Family API or bound program to run either in real mode or in
protected mode. This was however about running programs originally designed for
protected mode, not vice-versa. By design, protected mode programs did not suppose
that there is a relation between selector values and physical addresses. It is
sometimes mistakenly believed that problems with running real mode code in 16-bit
protected mode resulted from IBM having chosen to use Intel reserved interrupts for
BIOS calls. It is actually related to such programs using arbitrary selector values and
performing "segment arithmetic" described above on them.
This problem also appeared with Windows 3.0. Optimally, this release wanted to run
programs in 16-bit protected mode, while previously they were running in real mode.
Theoretically, if a Windows 1.x or 2.x program was written "properly" and avoided
segment arithmetic it would run indifferently in both real and protected modes.
Windows programs generally avoided segment arithmetic because Windows
implemented a software virtual memory scheme and moved program code and data in
memory when programs were not running, so manipulating absolute addresses was
dangerous; programs were supposed to only keep handles to memory blocks when
not running, and such handles were quite similar to protected-mode selectors already.
Starting an old program while Windows 3.0 was running in protected mode triggered a
warning dialog, suggesting to either run Windows in real mode (it could presumably
still use expanded memory, possibly emulated with EMM386 on 80386 machines, so it
was not limited to 640KB) or to obtain an updated version from the vendor. Wellbehaved programs could be "blessed" using a special tool to avoid this dialog. It was
not possible to have some GUI programs running in 16-bit protected mode and other
GUI programs running in real mode, probably because this would require having two
separate environments and (on 80286) would be subject to the previously mentioned
ping-ponging of the processor between modes. In version 3.1 real mode disappeared.
32-bit protected mode
The Intel 80386 introduced, perhaps, the greatest leap so far in the x86 architecture.
With the notable exception of the Intel 80386SX, which was 32-bit yet only had 24-bit
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addressing (and a 16-bit data bus), it was all 32-bit - all the registers, instructions, I/O
space and memory. To work with the latter, it used a 32-bit extension of Protected
Mode. As it was in the 286, segment registers were used to index inside a segment
table that described the division of memory. Unlike the 286, however, inside each
segment one could use 32-bit offsets, which allowed every application to access up to
4GB without segmentation and even more if segmentation was used. In addition, 32bit protected mode supported paging, a mechanism which made it possible to use
virtual memory.
No new general-purpose registers were added. All 16-bit registers except the segment
ones were expanded to 32 bits. Intel represented this by adding "E" to the register
mnemonics (thus the expanded AX became EAX, SI became ESI and so on). Since
there was a greater number of registers, instructions and operands, the machine code
format was expanded as well. In order to provide backwards compatibility, the
segments which contain executable code can be marked as containing either 16 or 32
bit instructions. In addition, special prefixes can be used to include 32-bit instructions
in a 16-bit segment and vice versa.
Paging and segmented memory access were both required in order to support a
modern multitasking operating system. Linux, 386BSD, Windows NT and Windows 95
were all initially developed for the 386, because it was the first CPU that made it
possible to reliably support the separation of programs' memory space (each into its
own address space) and the preemption of them in the case of necessity (using rings).
The basic architecture of the 386 became the basis of all further development in the
x86 series.
The Intel 80387 math co-processor was integrated into the next CPU in the series, the
Intel 80486. The new FPU could be used to make floating point calculations, important
for scientific calculation and graphic design.
MMX and beyond
1996 saw the appearance of the MMX (Matrix Math Extensions, though sometimes
incorrectly referred to as Multi-Media Extensions) technology by Intel. While the new
technology has been advertised widely and vaguely, its essence is very simple: MMX
defined 8 64-bit SIMD registers overlayed onto the FPU stack to the Intel Pentium CPU
design. Unfortunately, these instructions were not easily mappable to the code
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generated by ordinary C compilers, and Microsoft, the dominant compiler vendor, was
slow to support them even as intrinsics. MMX also is limited to integer operations.
These technical shortcomings caused MMX to have little impact in its early existence.
Nowadays, MMX is typically used for some 2D video applications.
3DNow!
In 1997 AMD introduced the 3DNow! which were SIMD floating point instruction
enhancements to MMX (targeting the same MMX registers). While this did not solve
the compiler difficulties, the introduction of this technology coincided with the rise of
3D entertainment applications in the PC space. 3D video game developers and 3D
graphics hardware vendors used 3DNow! to help enhance their performance on
AMD's K6 and Athlon series of processors.
SSE
In 1999 Intel introduced the SSE instruction set which added 8 new 128 bit registers
(not overlayed with other registers). These instructions were analogous to AMD's
3DNow! in that they primarily added floating point SIMD.
SSE2
In 2001 Intel introduced the SSE2 instruction set which added 1) a complete
complement of integers instructions (analogous to MMX) to the original SSE registers
and 2) 64-bit SIMD floating point instructions to the original SSE registers. The first
addition made MMX almost obsolete, and the second allowed the instructions to be
realistically targeted by conventional compilers.
SSE3
Introduced in 2004 along with the Prescott revision of the Pentium 4 processor, SSE3
added specific memory and thread-handling instructions to boost the performance of
Intel's HyperThreading technology. AMD later licensed the SSE3 instruction set for it's
latest (E) revision Athlon 64 processors. The SSE3 instruction set included on the new
Athlons are only lacking a couple of the instructions that Intel designed for
HyperThreading, since the Athlon 64 doesn't support HyperThreading; however SSE3
is still recognized in software as being supported on the platform.
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64-bit
As of 2002, the x86 architecture began to reach some design limits due to the 32-bit
character length. This makes it more difficult to handle massive information stores
larger than 4 GB, such as those found in databases or video editing.
Intel had originally decided to completely drop x86 compatibility with the 64-bit
generation, by introducing a new architecture called IA-64. IA-64 technology is the
basis for its Itanium line of processors. IA-64 is not software compatible with x86
software natively; it uses various forms of emulation to run x86 software.
AMD took the initiative of extending out the 32-bit x86, aka IA-32 to 64-bit. It came up
with an architecture, called AMD64 (it was called x86-64 until being rebranded), and
the first products based on this technology were the Opteron and Athlon 64 family of
processors. Due to the success of the AMD64 line of processors, Intel adopted the
AMD64 instruction set and added some new extensions of their own, rebranding it the
EM64T architecture (apparently not wishing to acknowledge that the instruction set
came from its main rival).
This was the first time that a major upgrade of the x86 architecture was initiated and
originated by a manufacturer other than Intel. Perhaps more importantly, it was the
first time that Intel actually accepted technology of this nature from an outside source.
Virtualization
x86 virtualization is difficult because the architecture does not meet the Popek and
Goldberg virtualization requirements. Nevertheless, there are several commercial x86
virtualizationproducts, such as VMware and Microsoft Virtual PC. Intel and AMD have
both announced that future x86 processors will have new enhancements to facilitate
more efficient virtualization. Intel's code names for their virtualization features are
"Vanderpool" and "Silvervale"; AMD uses the code name "Pacifica".
8086/88 Device Specifications

Both are packaged in DIP (Dual In-Line Packages).
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
8086: 16-bit microprocessor with a 16-bit data bus

8088: 16-bit microprocessor with an 8-bit data bus.

Both are 5V parts:

8086: Draws a maximum supply current of 360mA.

8086: Draws a maximum supply current of 340mA.

80C86/80C88: CMOS version draws 10mA with temp spec -40 to 225degF.

Input/Output current levels:
Yields a 350mV noise immunity for logic 0 (Output max can be as high as 450mV while
input max can be no higher than 800mV).
This limits the loading on the outputs.
8086/88 Pinout
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8086/88 Pinout
Pin functions:
AD15-AD0
Multiplexed address(ALE=1)/data bus(ALE=0).
A19/S6-A16/S3 (multiplexed)
High order 4 bits of the 20-bit address OR status bits S6-S3.
M/IO
Indicates if address is a Memory or IO address.
RD
When 0, data bus is driven by memory or an I/O device.
WR
Microprocessor is driving data bus to memory or an I/O device. When 0, data bus
contains valid data.
ALE (Address latch enable)
When 1, address data bus contains a memory or I/O address.
DT/R (Data Transmit/Receive)
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Data bus is transmitting/receiving data.
DEN (Data bus Enable)
Activates external data bus buffers.
8086/88 Pinout


Pin functions:
S7, S6, S5, S4, S3, S2, S1, S0
o
S7: Logic 1, S6: Logic 0.
o
S5: Indicates condition of IF flag bits.
o
S4-S3: Indicate which segment is accessed during
current bus cycle:
o
S2, S1, S0 : Indicate function of current bus cycle
(decoded by 8288).
8086/88 Pinout


Pin functions:
INTR
o
When 1 and IF=1, microprocessor prepares to service
interrupt. INTA becomes active after current instruction
completes.

INTA
Interrupt Acknowledge generated by the microprocessor in response to INTR. Causes
the interrupt vector to be put onto the data bus.
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NMI
Non-maskable interrupt. Similar to INTR except IF flag bit is not consulted and
interrupt is vector 2.
CLK
Clock input must have a duty cycle of 33% (high for 1/3 and low for 2/3s)
VCC/GND
Power supply (5V) and GND (0V).
8086/88 Pinout
Pin functions:
MN/ MX
Select minimum (5V) or maximum mode (0V) of operation.
BHE
Bus High Enable. Enables the most significant data bus bits (D
15
-D ) during a read or
8
write operation.
READY
Used to insert wait states (controlled by memory and IO for reads/writes) into the
microprocessor.
RESET
Microprocessor resets if this pin is held high for 4 clock periods.
Instruction execution begins at FFFF0H and IF flag is cleared.

TEST
o
An input that is tested by the WAIT instruction.
o
Commonly connected to the 8087 coprocessor.
8086/88 Pinout
Pin functions:
HOLD
Requests a direct memory access (DMA). When 1, microprocessor stops and places
address, data and control bus in high-impedance state.
HLDA (Hold Acknowledge)
Indicates that the microprocessor has entered the hold state.
RO/GT1 and RO/GT0
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Request/grant pins request/grant direct memory accesses (DMA) during maximum
mode operation.
LOCK
Lock output is used to lock peripherals off the system. Activated by using the LOCK:
prefix on any instruction.
QS1 and QS0
The queue status bits show status of internal instruction queue. Provided for access
by the numeric coprocessor (8087).
8284A Clock Generator
Basic functions:
Clock generation.
RESET synchronization.
READY synchronization.
Peripheral clock signal.
Connection of the 8284 and the 8086.
8284A Clock Generator
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8284A Clock Generator
Clock generation:
Crystal is connected to X1 and X2.
XTAL OSC generates square wave signal at crystal's frequency which feeds:
An inverting buffer (output OSC) which is used to drive the EFI input of other 8284As.
2-to-1 MUX
F/ C selects XTAL or EFI external input.
The MUX drives a divide-by-3 counter (15MHz to 5MHz).
This drives:
The READY flipflop (READY synchronization).
A second divide-by-2 counter (2.5MHz clk for peripheral components).
The RESET flipflop.
CLK which drives the 8086 CLK input.
8284A Clock Generator
RESET:
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Negative edge-triggered flipflop applies the RESET signal to the 8086 on the falling
edge.
The 8086 samples the RESET pin on the rising edge.
Correct reset timing requires that the RESET input to the microprocessor becomes a
logic 1 NO LATER than 4 clocks after power up and stay high for at least 50us.
BUS Buffering and Latching
Demultiplexing the Buses:
Computer systems have three buses:
Address
Data
Control
The Address and Data bus are multiplexed (shared) due to pin limitations on the 8086.
The ALE pin controls a set of latches.
o
All signals MUST be buffered.

Latches buffer for A
0
-A
.

Control and A
16
BHE are buffered
separately.
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-A
19
+
15
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
Data bus buffers must be
bi-directional buffers (BB).
o
BHE : Selects the high-order memory bank.
BUS Buffering and Latching
BUS Timing

Writing:

Dump address on address bus.

Dump data on data bus.

Issue a write ( WR ) and set M/ IO to 1.
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BUS Timing

Reading:

Dump address on address bus.

Issue a read ( RD ) and set M/ IO to 1.

Wait for memory access cycle.
BUS Timing

Bus Timing:
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BUS Timing
During T
1
:

The address is placed on the Address/Data bus.

Control signals M/ IO , ALE and DT/ R specify memory or I/O, latch the address
onto the address bus and set the direction of data transfer on data bus.
During T

2
:
8086 issues the RD or WR signal, DEN , and, for a write, the data.
DEN enables the memory or I/O device to receive the data for writes and the 8086 to
receive the data for reads.
During T
3
:

This cycle is provided to allow memory to access data.

READY is sampled at the end of T
If low, T
3
2
.
becomes a wait state.
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Otherwise, the data bus is sampled at the end of T
During T
4
3
.
:

All bus signals are deactivated, in preparation for next bus cycle.

Data is sampled for reads, writes occur for writes.
BUS Timing
Timing:
Each BUS CYCLE on the 8086 equals four system clocking periods (T states).
The clock rate is 5MHz , therefore one Bus Cycle is 800ns .
The transfer rate is 1.25MHz .
Memory specs (memory access time) must match constraints of system timing.
For example, bus timing for a read operation shows almost 600ns are needed to read
data.
However, memory must access faster due to setup times, e.g. Address setup and data
setup.
This subtracts off about 150ns .
Therefore, memory must access in at least 450ns minus another 30-40ns guard band
for buffers and decoders.
420ns DRAM required for the 8086.
BUS Timing
READY:
An input to the 8086 that causes wait states for slower memory and I/O components.
A wait state (T
W
) is an extra clock period inserted between T
2
and T
3
the bus cycle.
For example, this extends a 460ns bus cycle (at 5MHz clock) to 660ns .
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to lengthen
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Text discusses role of 8284A and timing requirements for the 8086.
MIN and MAX Mode
Controlled through the MN/ MX pin.
Minimum mode is cheaper since all control signals for memory and I/O are generated
by the microprocessor.
Maximum mode is designed to be used when a coprocessor (8087) exists in the
system.
Some of the control signals must be generated externally, due to redefinition of
certain control pins on the 8086.
The following pins are lost when the 8086 operates in Maximum mode .
ALE
WR
IO/ M
DT/ R
DEN
INTA
This requires an external bus controller: The 8288 Bus Controller .
8288 Bus Controller
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
Separate signals are used for I/O ( IORC and IOWC ) and memory (
MRDC and MWTC ).

Also provided are advanced memory ( AIOWC ) and I/O ( AIOWC )
write strobes plus INTA .
MAX Mode 8086 System
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Intel 8088
The Intel 8088 is an Intel microprocessor based on the 8086, with 16-bit registers and
an 8-bit external data bus. The processor was used in the original IBM PC.
The 8088 was targeted at economical systems by allowing the use of 8-bit designs.
Large bus width circuit boards were still fairly expensive when it was released. The
prefetch queue of the 8088 is 4 bytes, as opposed to the 8086's 6 bytes. The
descendants of the 8088 include the 8018, 80288 (obsolete), and 80388
microcontrollers which are still in use today.
The most influential microcomputer to use the 8088 was, by far, the IBM PC. The
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original PC processor ran at a clock frequency of 4.77 MHz.
Apparently IBM's own engineers wanted to use the Motorola 68000, and it was used
later in the forgotten IBM Instruments 9000 Laboratory Computer, but IBM already had
rights to manufacture the 8086 family, in exchange for giving Intel the rights to its
bubble memory designs. A factor for using the 8-bit Intel 8088 version was that it
could use existing Intel 8085-type components, and allowed the computer to be based
on a modified 8085 design. 68000 components were not widely available at the time,
though it could use Motorola 6800 components to an extent. Intel bubble memory was
on the market for a while, but Intel left the market due to fierce competition from
Japanese corporations who could undercut by cost, and left the memory market to
focus on processors.
A compatible replacement chip, the V20, was produced by NEC for an approximate 20
percent improvement in computing power.
Assembly language
Assembly language or simply assembly is a human-readable notation for the machine
language that a specific computer architecture uses. Machine language, a pattern of
bits encoding machine operations, is made readable by replacing the raw values with
symbols called mnemonics.
For example, a computer with the appropriate processor will understand this x86/IA-32
machine instruction:
10110000 01100001
For programmers, however, it is easier to remember the equivalent assembly
language representation:
mov al, 0x61
which means to move the hexadecimal value 61 (97 decimal) into the processor
register with the name "al". The mnemonic "mov" is short for "move", and a commaseparated list of arguments or parameters follows it; this is a typical assembly
language statement.
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Unlike in high-level languages, there is usually a 1-to-1 correspondence between
simple assembly statements and machine language instructions. Transforming
assembly into machine language is accomplished by an assembler, and the reverse
by a disassembler.
Every computer architecture has its own machine language, and therefore its own
assembly language. Computers differ by the number and type of operations that they
support. They may also have different sizes and numbers of registers, and different
representations of data types in storage. While all general-purpose computers are
able to carry out essentially the same functionality, the way they do it differs, and the
corresponding assembly language must reflect these differences.
In addition, multiple sets of mnemonics or assembly-language syntax may exist for a
single instruction set. In these cases, the most popular one is usually that used by the
manufacturer in their documentation.
Machine instructions
Instructions in assembly language are generally very simple, unlike in a high-level
language. Any instruction that references memory (for data or as a jump target) will
also have an addressing mode to determine how to calculate the required memory
address. More complex operations must be built up out of these simple operations.
Some operations available in most instruction sets include:
movings
set a register (a temporary "scratchpad" location in the CPU itself) to a fixed
constant value
move data from a memory location to a register, or vice versa. This is done
to obtain the data to perform a computation on it later, or to store the result of a
computation.
read and write data from hardware devices
computing
add, subtract, multiply, or divide the values of two registers, placing the
result in a register
perform bitwise operations, taking the conjunction/disjunction (and/or) of
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corresponding bits in a pair of registers, or the negation (not) of each bit in a register
compare two values in registers (for example, to see if one is less, or if they
are equal)
affecting program flow
jump to another location in the program and execute instructions there
jump to another location if a certain condition holds
jump to another location, but save the location of the next instruction as a
point to return to (a call)
Specific instruction sets will often have single, or a few instructions for common
operations which would otherwise take many instructions. Examples:
saving many registers on the stack at once
moving large blocks of memory
complex and/or floating-point arithmetic (sine, cosine, square root, etc.)
applying a simple operation (for example, addition) to a vector of values
Addressing mode
In computer programming, addressing modes are primarily of interest to compiler
writers and to those (few nowadays) who use assembly language. Some computer
science students may also need to learn about addressing modes as part of their
studies. Those involved with CPU design or computer architecture should already
know this and a lot more.
Addressing modes form part of the instruction set architecture for some particular
type of CPU. Some machine languages will need to refer to (addresses of) operands in
memory. An addressing mode specifies how to calculate the effective memory
address of an operand by using information held in registers and/or
constants contained within a machine instruction.
Opcode
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Microprocessors perform operations using binary bits (on/off/1or0).
Four bits is equal to a byte, and two bytes is equal to a word.
as an example lets design a crude 4-bit microprocessor.
all registers/ALU/counter/address have a data path of 4-bit wide.
and all of our instructions must fit in a 3-bit address.
these are the op-codes mnemonic operations explanation
000 ADD add A to B and store in b
001 mov move A to B and store in b
010 Jmp jump value in A
011 xorA xor A with next op-code store in b
100 clrA clear A
101 return return to pointer
110 counter counter value
111 end end program
when the op-code values are active at the decoders logic inputs the desired
operations are performed..
this is a better explanation then whats below..cleanUpLater.., each of which is
assigned a numeric code called an opcode. To assist in the use of these numeric
codes, mnemonics are used as textual abbreviations. It's much easier to remember
ADD than 05, for example.
Opcodes operate on registers, values in memory, values stored on the stack, I/Oports,
the bus, etc. They are used to perform arithmetic operations and move and change
values. Operands are the things that opcodes operate on.
Mnemonic
A mnemonic (Pronounced in American English in British English is a memoryaid.
Mnemonics are often verbal, are sometimes in verse form, and are often used to
remember lists. Mnemonics rely not only on repetition to remember facts, but also on
associations between easy-to-remember constructs and lists of data, based on the
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principle that the human mind much more easily remembers data attached to spatial,
personal or otherwise meaningful information than that occurring in meaningless
sequences. The word mnemonic shares etymology with Mnemosyne, the name of the
titan who personified Memory in Greek mythology
Techniques
A mnemonic technique is one of many memory aids that is used to create
associations among facts that make it easier to remember these facts. Popular
mnemonic techniques include mind mapping and peg lists. These techniques make
use of the power of the visual cortex to simplify the complexity of memories. Thus
simpler memories can be stored more efficiently. For example, a number can be
remembered as a picture. This makes it easier to retrieve it from memory. Mnemonic
techniques should be used in conjunction with active recall to actually be beneficial.
For example, it is not enough to look at a mind map; one needs to actively reconstruct
it in one's memory
Instruction set
An instruction set, or instruction set architecture (ISA), describes the aspects of a
computer architecture visible to a programmer, including the native datatypes,
instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and
exception handling, and external I/O (if any).
An ISA is a specification of the set of all binary codes (opcodes) that are the native
form of commands implemented by a particular CPU design. The set of opcodes for a
particular ISA is also known as the machine language for the ISA.
"Instruction set architecture" is sometimes used to distinguish this set of
characteristics from the microarchitecture, which is the set of processor design
techniques used to implement the instruction set (including microcode, pipelining,
cache systems, and so forth). Computers with different microarchitectures can share
a common instruction set. For example, the Intel Pentium and the AMD Athlon
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implement nearly identical versions of the x86 instruction set, but have radically
different internal designs. This concept can be extended to unique ISAs like TIMI
present in the IBM System/38 and IBM IAS/400. TIMI is an ISA that is implemented as
low-level software and functionally resembles what is now referred to as a virtual
machine It was designed to increase the longevity of the platform and applications
written for it, allowing the entire platform to be moved to very different hardware
without having to modify any software except that which comprises TIMI itself. This
allowed IBM to move the AS/400 platform from an older CISC architecture to the newer
POWER architecture without having to rewrite any parts of the OS or software
associated with it.
When designing microarchitectures, engineers use Register Transfer Language (RTL)
to define the operation of each instruction of an ISA.
An ISA can also be emulated in software by a interpreter. Due to the additional
translation needed for the emulation, this is usually slower than directly running
programs on the hardware implementing that ISA. Today, it is common practice for
vendors of new ISAs or microarchitectures to make software emulators available to
software developers before the hardware implementation is ready.
Assembly language directives
In addition to codes for machine instructions, assembly languages have extra
directives for assembling blocks of data, and assigning address locations for
instructions or code.
They usually have a simple symbolic capability for defining values as symbolic
expressions which are evaluated at assembly time, making it possible to write code
that is easier to read and understand.
Like most computer languages, comments can be added to the source code which are
ignored by the assembler.
They also usually have an embedded macro language to make it easier to generate
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complex pieces of code or data.
In practice, the absence of comments and the replacement of symbols with actual
numbers makes the human interpretation of disassembled code considerably more
difficult than the original source would be.
Usage of assembly language
There is some debate over the usefulness of assembly language. It is often said that
modern compilers can render higher-level languages into codes that run as fast as
hand-written assembly, but counter-examples can be made, and there is no clear
consensus on this topic. It is reasonably certain that, given the increase in complexity
of modern processors, effective hand-optimization is increasingly difficult and
requires a great deal of knowledge.
However, some discrete calculations can still be rendered into faster running code
with assembly, and some low-level programming is simply easier to do with assembly.
Some system-dependent tasks performed by operating system simply cannot be
expressed in high-level languages. In particular, assembly is often used in writing the
low level interaction between the operating system and the hardware, for instance in
device drivers. Many compilers also render high-level languages into assembly first
before fully compiling, allowing the assembly code to be viewed for debugging and
optimization purposes.
It's also common, especially in relatively low-level languages such as, to be able to
embed assembly language into the source code with special syntax. Programs using
such facilities, such as the Linux kernel often construct abstractions where different
assembly is used on each platform the program supports, but it is called by portable
code through a uniform interface.
Many embedded systems are also programmed in assembly to obtain the absolute
maximum functionality out of what is often very limited computational resources,
though this is gradually changing in some areas as more powerful chips become
available for the same minimal cost.
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Another common area of assembly language use is in the system BIOS of a computer.
This low-level code is used to initialize and test the system hardware prior to booting
the OS and is stored in ROM. Once a certain level of hardware initialization has taken
place, code written in higher level languages can be used, but almost always the code
running immediately after power is applied is written in assembly language. This is
usually due to the fact system RAM may not yet be initialized at power-up and
assembly language can execute without explicit use of memory, especially in the form
of a stack.
Assembly language is also valuable in reverse engineering, since many programs are
distributed only in machine code form, and machine code is usually easy to translate
into assembly language and carefully examine in this form, but very difficult to
translate into a higher-level language. Tools such as the Interactive Disassembler
make extensive use of disassembly for such a purpose.
Interrupt
In computer science, an interrupt is a signal from a device which typically results in a
context switch: that is, the processor sets aside what it's doing and does something
else.
Digital computers usually provide a way to start software routines in response to
asynchronous electronic events. These events are signaled to the processor via
interrupt requests (IRQ). The processor and interrupt code make a context switch into
a specifically written piece of software to handle the interrupt. This software is called
the interrupt service routine, or interrupt handler. The addresses of these handlers are
termed interrupt vectors and are generally stored in a table in RAM, allowing them to
be modified if required.
Interrupts were originated to avoid wasting the computer's valuable time in software
loops (called polling loops) waiting for electronic events. Instead, the computer was
able to do other useful work while the event was pending. The interrupt would signal
the computer when the event occurred, allowing efficient accommodation for slow
mechanical devices.
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Interrupts allow modern computers to respond promptly to electronic events, while
other work is being performed. Computer architectures also provide instructions to
permit processes to initiate software interrupts or traps. These can be used, for
instance, to implement co-operative multitasking
A well-designed interrupt mechanism arranges the design of the computer bus
software and interrupting device so that if some single part of the interrupt sequence
fails, the interrupt restarts and runs to completion. Usually there is an electronic
request, an electronic response, and a software operation to turn off the device's
interrupt, to prevent another request.
Interrupt Types
Typical interrupt types include:
timer interrupts
disk interrupts
power-off interrupts
traps
Other interrupts exist to transfer data bytes using UARTs, or Ethernet, sense keypresses, control motors, or anything else the equipment must do.
A classic timer interrupt just interrupts periodically from a counter or the power-line.
The software (usually part of an operating system counts the interrupts to keep time.
The timer interrupt may also be used to reschedule the priorities of running
processes. Counters are popular, but some older computers used the power line
because power companies control the power-line frequency with an atomic clock.
A disk interrupt signals the completion of a data transfer from or to the disk
peripheral. A process waiting to read or write a file starts up again.
A power-off interrupt predicts or requests a loss of power. It allows the computer
equipment to perform an orderly shutdown.
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Interrupts are also used in typeahead features for buffering events like keystrokes.
Interrupt routines generally have a short execution time. Most interrupt routines do
not allow themselves to be interrupted, because they store saved context on a stack,
and if interrupted many times, the stack could overflow. An interrupt routine
frequently needs to be able to respond to a further interrupt from the same source. If
the interrupt routine has significant work to do in response to an interrupt, and it is
not critical that the work be performed immediately, then often the routine will do
nothing but schedule the work for some later time and return as soon as possible.
Some processors support a hierarchy of interrupt priorities, allowing certain kinds of
interrupts to occur while processing higher priority interrupts.
Processors also often have a mechanism referred to as interrupt disable which allows
software to prevent interrupts from interfering with communication between interruptcode and non-interrupt code. See mutual exclusion.
Typically, the user can configure the machine using hardware registers so that
different types of interrupts are enabled or disabled, depending on what the user
wants. The interrupt signals are And'ed with a mask, thus allowing only desired
interrupts to occur. Some interrupts cannot be disabled - these are referred to as nonmaskable interrupts
Interrupt vector
When a processor receives an interrupt, the normal flow of whatever program it is
running stops and control is passed to another program (or a different part of the
same program). A more low-level description is to say that the CPU stops what it was
doing, stores its status somewhere and jumps to another area of memory and starts
running whatever code is there.
The destination to which the CPU jumps for a given interrupt is termed the interrupt
vector.
Generally, most computer system designs will incorporate a list of such vectors; this
is termed the interrupt vector table or dispatch table.
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Interrupt handler
An Interrupt Handler is the modern progression of an interrupt service routine, a
routine whose execution is triggered by an interrupt.
In modern systems Interrupt Handlers are split into two parts: the First-Level Interrupt
Handler (FLIH) and the Second-Level Interrupt Handlers (SLIH).
The FLIH operates in the same way as the old interrupt routines did. In response to an
interrupt there is a context switch and the code for the interrupt is loaded and
executed. The job of the FLIH, however, is not to process the interrupt, but to
schedule the execution of the SLIH, while recording any critical information which is
only available at the time of the interrupt.
The SLIH sits on the run queue of the operating system until it can be executed to
perform the processing for the interrupt when processor time is available.
It is worth noting that in many systems the FLIH and SLIH are referred to as upper
halves and lower halves, or a derivation of those names.
Non-Maskable interrupt
A non-maskable interrupt (or NMI) is a special type of interrupt used on in most types
of microcomputer, for example the IBM PC and Apple II.
An NMI causes the CPU to stop what it was doing, change the program counter to
point to a particular address and continue executing code from that location.
Programmers are unable to program the CPU to ignore these interrupts, hence the
term "non-maskable".
In practice, NMIs are particularly useful for two reasons.
One is for debugging faulty code, where it can be instantly suspended at any point
and control transferred to a special monitor program, from which the developer can
inspect the machine's memory and examine the internal state of the program as it
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rests in "suspended animation". The Apple Macintosh's "programmers' button"
worked in this way, as do certain key combinations on SUN workstations.
A second is for leisure users and gamers. Devices which added a button to generate
an NMI, such as Romantic Robot's Multiface, were a popular accessory for 1980s 8-bit
and 16-bit home computers. These peripherals had a small amount of ROM and an
NMI button. Pressing the button transferred control to the software in the peripheral's
ROM, allowing the suspended program to be saved to disk (very useful for tape-based
games with no disk support, but also for saving games in progress), screenshots to
be saved or printed, or values in memory to be manipulated -- a cheating technique to
acquire extra lives, for example.
Some floppy disk interfaces, such as the Miles Gordon Technology's DISCiPLE and
PlusD for the ZX Spectrum, also included an NMI button.
Intel 8087
The 8087 was the first math coprocessor designed by Intel and it was built to be
paired with the Intel 8088 and 8086 microprocessors. The purpose of the 8087, the first
of the x87 family, was to speed up computations on demanding applications involving
floating point mathematics. The performance enhancements went from 20% to 500%
depending on the specific application.
This coprocessor introduced about 60 new instructions available to the programmer,
all beginning with "F" to differentiate them from the standard 8086/88 integer math
instructions. For example, in constrast to ADD/MUL, the 8087 provided FADD/FMUL.
The 8087 (and, in fact, the entire x87 family) does not provide a freely, linear register
set such as the AX/BX/CX/DX registers of the 8086/88 and 80286 processors -- the x87
registers are structured in some form of stack (altough it is not exactly like a typical
stack data structure) ranging from ST0 to ST7. The floating point instructions of the
80x87 coprocessors operate popping and pushing values onto this stack.
When Intel designed the 8087 it aimed to make a standard floating point format for
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future designs. In fact, one of the most successful things from a historical perspective
of this coprocessor was the introduction of the first floating point standard for the x86
PCs: the IEEE 754. The 8087 provided two basic 32/64-bit floating point data types and
an additional extended 80-bit internal support to improve accuracy over large and
complex calculations. Apart from this, the 8087 offered a 80-bit/17-digit packed BCD
(binary coded decimal) format and 16,32 and 64-bit integer data types.
The 8087, announced in 1980, was superseded by the 80287, 80387DX/SX and the
487SX. Intel 80486DX, Pentium and later processors include a built-in coprocessor on
the CPU core.
Pin Diagram of Intel 8087
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Peripheral
A peripheral is a type of computer hardware that is added to a host computer, in order
to expand its abilities. More specifically the term is used to describe those devices
that are optional in nature, as opposed to hardware that is either demanded, or always
required in principle.
The term also tends to be applied to devices that are hooked up externally, typically
though some form of computer bus like USB. Typical examples include joysticks,
printers and scanners. Devices such as monitors and disk drives are not considered
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peripherals because they are not truly optional, and video capture card are typically
not referred to as peripheral because they are internal devices.
Programmable Peripheral Interface (82C55)
The 82C55 is a popular interfacing component, that can interface any TTL-compatible
I/O device to the microprocessor.
It is used to interface to the keyboard and a parallel printer port in PCs (usually as part
of an integrated chipset).
Requires insertion of wait states if used with a microprocessor using higher that an 8
MHz clock.
PPI has 24 pins for I/O that are programmable in groups of 12 pins and has three
distinct modes of operation.
In the PC, an 82C55 or its equivalent is decoded at I/O ports 60H-63H.
Pinout of 82C55 PPI
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Interfacing the 82C55 PPI
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Programming the 82C55
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82C55: Mode 0 Operation
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82C55: Mode 0 Operation
Mode 0 operation causes the 82C55 to function as a buffered input device or as a
latched output device.
In previous example, both ports A and B are programmed as (mode 0) simple latched
output ports.
Port A provides the segment data inputs to display and port B provides a means of
selecting one display position at a time.
Different values are displayed in each digit via fast time multiplexing.
The values for the resistors and the type of transistors used are determined using the
current requirements (see text for details).
Textbook has the assembly code fragment demonstrating its use.
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Examples of connecting LCD displays and stepper motors are also given.
82C55: Mode 0 Operation
82C55: Mode 0 Operation
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82C55: Mode 1 Strobed Input
Port A and/or port B function as latching input devices. External data is stored in the
ports until the microprocessor is ready.
Port C used for control or handshaking signals (cannot be used for data).
Signal definitions for Mode 1 Strobed Input
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82C55: Mode 1 Strobed Input
82C55: Mode 1 Strobed Input Example
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Keyboard encoder debounces the key-switches, and provides a strobe whenever a
key is depressed.
DAV is activated on a key press strobing the ASCII-coded key code into Port A.
82C55: Mode 1 Strobed Output
Similar to Mode 0 output operation, except that handshaking signals are provided
using port C.
Signal Definitions for Mode 1 Strobed Output
82C55: Mode 1 Strobed Output
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82C55: Mode 2 Bi-directional Operation

Only allowed with port A. Bi-directional bused data used for
interfacing

two computers, GPIB interface etc.
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82C55: Mode 2 Bi-directional Operation
Timing diagram is a combination of the Mode 1 Strobed Input and Mode 1 Strobed
Output Timing diagrams.
PIC 8259
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What are Interrupts?
When receiving data and change in status from I/O Ports, we have two methods
available to us. We can Poll the port, which involves reading the status of the port at
fixed intervals to determine whether any data has been received or a change of status
has occurred. If so, then we can branch to a routine to service the ports requests.
As you could imagine, polling the port would consume quite some time. Time which
could be used doing other things such refreshing the screen, displaying the time etc.
A better alternative would be to use Interrupts. Here, the processor does your tasks
such as refreshing the screen, displaying the time etc, and when a I/O Port/Device
needs attention as a byte has been received or status has changed, then it sends a
Interrupt Request (IRQ) to the processor.
Once the processor receives an Interrupt Request, it finishes its current instruction,
places a few things on the stack, and executes the appropriate Interrupt Service
Routine (ISR) which can remove the byte from the port and place it in a buffer. Once
the ISR has finished, the processor returns to where it left off.
Using this method, the processor doesn't have to waste time, looking to see if your I/O
Device is in need of attention, but rather the device will interrupt the processor when it
needs attention.
Interrupts and Intel Architecture
Interrupts do not have to be entirely associated with I/O devices. The 8086 family of
microprocessors provides 256 interrupts, many of these are only for use as software
interrupts, which we do not attempt to explain in this document.
The 8086 series of microprocessors has an Interrupt Vector Table situated at
0000:0000 which extends for 1024 bytes. The Interrupt Vector table holds the address
of the Interrupt Service Routines (ISR), all four bytes in length. This gives us room for
the 256 Interrupt Vectors.
INT (Hex)
IRQ
Common Uses
00 - 01
Exception Handlers
02
Non-Maskable IRQ
03 - 07
Exception Handlers
08
Hardware IRQ0
System Timer
09
Hardware IRQ1
Keyboard
Non-Maskable IRQ (Parity Errors)
-
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0A
Hardware IRQ2
Redirected
0B
Hardware IRQ3
Serial Comms. COM2/COM4
0C
Hardware IRQ4
Serial Comms. COM1/COM3
0D
Hardware IRQ5
Reserved/Sound Card
0E
Hardware IRQ6
Floppy Disk Controller
0F
Hardware IRQ7
Parallel Comms.
10 - 6F
Software Interrupts
70
Hardware IRQ8
Real Time Clock
71
Hardware IRQ9
Redirected IRQ2
72
Hardware IRQ10
Reserved
73
Hardware IRQ11
Reserved
74
Hardware IRQ12
PS/2 Mouse
75
Hardware IRQ13
Math's Co-Processor
76
Hardware IRQ14
Hard Disk Drive
77
Hardware IRQ15
Reserved
78 - FF
Software Interrupts
-
Table 1 : x86 Interrupt Vectors
The average PC, only has 15 Hardware IRQ's plus one Non-Maskable IRQ. The rest of
the interrupt vectors are used for software interrupts and exception handlers.
Exception handlers are routines like ISR's which get called or interrupted when an
error results. Such an example is the first Interrupt Vector which holds the address of
the Divide By Zero, Exception handler. When a divide by zero occurs the
Microprocessor fetches the address at 0000:0000 and starts executing the code at this
Address.
Hardware Interrupts
The Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) handles hardware interrupts. Most PC's
will have two of them located at different addresses. One handles IRQ's 0 to 7 and the
other, IRQ's 8 to 15, giving a total of 15 individual IRQ lines, as the second PIC is
cascaded into the first, using IRQ2.
Most of the PIC's initialization is done by BIOS, thus we only have to worry about two
instructions. The PIC has a facility available where we can mask individual IRQ's so
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that these requests will not reach the Processor. Thus the first instruction is to the
Operation Control Word 1 (OCW1) to set which IRQ's to mask and which IRQ's not too.
As there are two PIC's located at different addresses, we must first determine which
PIC we need to use. The first PIC, located at Base Address 0x20h controls IRQ 0 to
IRQ 7. The bit format of PIC1's Operation Control Word 1 is shown below in table 2.
Bit
Disable IRQ
Function
7
IRQ7
Parallel Port
6
IRQ6
Floppy Disk Controller
5
IRQ5
Reserved/Sound Card
4
IRQ4
Serial Port
3
IRQ3
Serial Port
2
IRQ2
PIC2
1
IRQ1
Keyboard
0
IRQ0
System Timer
Table 2 : PIC1 Operation Control Word 1 (0x21)
Note that IRQ 2 is connected to PIC2, thus if you mask this IRQ, then you will be
disabling IRQ's 8 to 15.
The second PIC located at a base address of 0xA0h controls IRQs 8 to 15. Below is the
individual bits required to make up it's Operation Control Word.
Bit
Disable IRQ
Function
7
IRQ15
Reserved
6
IRQ14
Hard Disk Drive
5
IRQ13
Maths Co-Processor
4
IRQ12
PS/2 Mouse
3
IRQ11
Reserved
2
IRQ10
Reserved
1
IRQ9
Redirected IRQ2
0
IRQ8
Real Time Clock
Table 3 : PIC2 Operation Control Word 1 (0xA1)
As the above table shows the bits required to disable an IRQ, we must invert them
should we want to enable an IRQ. For example, if we want to enable IRQ 3 then we
would send the byte 0xF7 as OCW1 to PIC1. But what happens if one of these IRQs
are already enabled and then we come along and disable it?
Therefore we must first get the mask and use the AND function to output the byte
back to the register with our changes so to cause the least upset to the other IRQs.
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Going back to our IRQ3 example, we could use outportb(0x21,(inportb(0x21) & 0xF7);
to enable IRQ3. Take note that the OCW1 goes to the register at Base + 1.
The same procedure must be used to mask (disable) an IRQ once we are finished with
it. However this time we must OR the byte 0x08 to the contents of OCW1. Such and
example of code is outportb(0x21,(inportb(0x21) | 0x08);
The other PIC instruction we have to worry about is the End of Interrupt (EOI). This is
sent to the PIC at the end of the Interrupt Service Routine so that the PIC can reset the
In Service Register. See The Programmable Interrupt Controller for more information.
An EOI can be sent using outportb(0x20,0x20); for PIC1 or outportb(0xA0,0x20); for
PIC2
Implementing the Interrupt Service Routine (ISR)
In C you can implement your ISR using void interrupt yourisr() where yourisr is a far
pointer, pointing to the address that your Interrupt Service Routine will reside in
memory. This is later placed in the Interrupt Vector Table so that, it will be called when
interrupted.
The following code is a basic implementation of an ISR.
void interrupt yourisr() /* Interrupt Service Routine (ISR) */
{
disable();
/* Body of ISR goes here */
oldhandler();
outportb(0x20,0x20);
/* Send EOI to PIC1 */
enable();
}
void interrupt yourisr() defines this function as an Interrupt Service Routine. disable();
clears the interrupt flag, so that no other hardware interrupts ,except a NMI (NonMaskable Interrupt) can occur. Otherwise, and interrupt with a higher priority that this
one can interrupt the execution of this ISR. However this is not really a problem in
many cases, thus is optional.
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The body of your ISR will include code which you want to execute upon this interrupt
request being activated. Most Ports/UARTs may interrupt the processor for a range of
reasons, eg byte received, time-outs, FIFO buffer empty, overruns etc, thus the nature
of the interrupt has to be determined. This is normally achieved by reading the status
registers of the port you are using. Once it has been established, you can service it's
requests.
If you read any data from a port, it is normally common practice to place it in a buffer,
rather that immediately writing it to the screen, inhibiting further interrupts to be
processed. Most Ports these days will have FIFO buffers which can contain more than
one byte, thus repeat your read routine, until the FIFO is empty, then exit your ISR.
In some cases it may be appropriate to chain the old ISR to this one. Such an example
would be the Clock Interrupt. Other TSR or resident programs may also be using it,
thus if you intercept the interrupt and keep it all for yourself, the other ISR's can no
longer function possibly causing some side effects. However for Serial/Parallel Ports
this is not a problem. To chain the old ISR to your new ISR, you can call it using
oldhandler(); where oldhandler points to your old ISR.
Before we can return from the interrupt, we must tell the Programmable Interrupt
Controller, that we are ending the interrupt by sending an EOI (End of Interrupt 0x10)
to it. As there are two PIC's you must first establish which one to send it to. Use
outportb(0x20,0x20); for PIC 1 (IRQ 0 - 7) or outportb(0xA0,0x20); for PIC 2 (IRQ 8 - 15).
Note: If using PIC2, then an EOI has to be sent to both PIC1 and PIC2.
Using your new Interrupt Service Routine
Now that we have written our new interrupt service routine, we can start looking at
how to implement it. The following code segment shows the basic usage of your new
ISR. For this example we have chosen to use IRQ 3.
#include <dos.h>
#define INTNO 0x0B
/* Interupt Number - See Table 1 */
void main(void)
{
oldhandler = getvect(INTNO);
/* Save Old Interrupt Vector */
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setvect(INTNO, yourisr);
/* Set New Interrupt Vector Entry */
outportb(0x21,(inportb(0x21) & 0xF7)); /* Un-Mask (Enable) IRQ3 */
/* Set
Card - Port to Generate Interrupts */
/* Body of Program Goes Here */
/* Reset Card - Port as to Stop Generating Interrupts */
outportb(0x21,(inportb(0x21) | 0x08)); /* Mask (Disable) IRQ3 */
setvect(INTNO, oldhandler);
/* Restore old Interrupt Vector Before Exit */
}
Before you can place the address of your new ISR in the interrupt vector table, you
must first save the old interrupt vector, so that you can restore it once you exit your
program. This is done using oldhandler = getvect(INTNO); where INTNO is the number
of the interrupt vector you wish to return. Before oldhandler can be used, you must
first declare it using void interrupt ( *oldhandler)();
Once the old interrupt vector is stored, we can now install your new ISR into the
interrupt vector table. This is done using the line setvect(INTNO, yourisr); where
yourisr points to your interrupt service routine.
The IRQ which you are using must now be unmasked. We have already discussed this
earlier. See Hardware Interrupts.
Most Ports/UARTs will need some initialization to be able to generate interrupts. For
Example, The Standard Parallel Port (SPP) will require Bit 4 of the Control Port, Enable
IRQ Via ACK Line to be set at Base + 2. The Serial Port will require the appropriate
setting of Bits 0 to 4 of the Interrupt Enable Register (IER) located at Base + 1.
Your body of the program normally consists of a few housekeeping tasks depending upon
your application. Here you look for new keys pressed, menus being selected, updating
clocks, checking for incoming data in buffers etc, knowing that any data from your Ports will
be automatically read and processed, by the ISR.
If you like implementing ISR's so much, you can attach your own ISR to the Keyboard
Interrupt, so any keys being pressed will be automatically handled by another ISR, and even
one to the clock. Upon every 18.2 ticks you can update the seconds on your display! The
possibilities of ISR's are endless.
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Before you exit your program always restore the old interrupt vector, so that your
computer doesn't become unstable. This is done using setvect(INTNO, oldhandler); ,
where oldhandler points to the old interrupt service routine, which we stored using
oldhandler = getvect(INTNO);
The Programmable Interrupt Controller
As we have all ready discussed, the Interrupt ReQuests (IRQ's) of a PC is handled by
two 8259 Programmable Interrupt Controllers. On the old XT's/AT's these were two 28
Pin DIP IC's, but as you can imagine, things have changed dramatically since then.
While the operational principal is still the same, the PIC is now integrated somewhere
into your chipset, along with many other devices.
The basic block diagram of the PIC is shown above. The 8 individual interrupt request
lines are first passed through the Interrupt Mask Register (IMR) to see if they have
been masked or not. If they are masked, then the request isn't processed any further.
However if they are not masked, they will register their request with the Interrupt
Request Register (IRR).
The Interrupt Request Register will hold all the requested IRQ's until they have been
dealt with appropriately. If required, this register can be read by setting certain bits of
the Operation Control Word 3. The Priority Resolver simply selects the IRQ of highest
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priority. The higher priority interrupts are the lower numbered ones. For Example IRQ
0 has the highest priority followed by IRQ 1 etc.
Now that the PIC has determined which IRQ to process, it is now time to tell the
processor, so that it can call your ISR for you. This process is done by sending a INT
to the processor, i.e. the INT line on the processor is asserted. The processor will then
finish the current instruction it's processing and acknowledge your INT request with a
INTA (Interrupt Acknowledge) pulse.
Upon receiving the processor's INTA, the IRQ which the PIC is processing at the time
is stored in the In Service Register (ISR) which as the name suggests, shows which
IRQ is currently in service. The IRQ's bit is also reset in the Interrupt Request
Register, as it is no longer requesting service but actually getting service.
Another INTA pulse will be sent by the processor, to tell the PIC to place a 8 bit
pointer on the data bus, corresponding to the IRQ number. If an IRQ serviced by PIC2
is requesting the service, then PIC2 will send the pointer to the processor. The Master
(PIC1) at this stage, will select PIC2 to send the pointer, by placing PIC2's Slave ID on
the Cascade lines, which is a 3 wire bus between all the PIC's in a system.
The 5 most significant bits of this pointer is set using the Initialization Command
Word 2 (ICW2). This will be 00001 for PIC1 and 01110 for PIC2. The three least
significant bits, will be sent due to which IRQ is being serviced. For example, if IRQ3
is requesting service then the 8 bit pointer will be made up with 00001 for the 5 most
significant bits and 011 (IR3) for the least significant bits. Put this together and you
get 00001011 or 0x0B which just happens to be IRQ3's interrupt vector.
For PIC2, the same principal is applied. If IRQ10 is requesting service, then 01110010
will be sent, which just happens to represent Interrupt 72h. IRQ10 happens to be
connected to IR2 on the Second PIC, thus 010 is used as the least significant bits.
Once your ISR has done everything it needs, it sends an End of Interrupt (EOI) to the
PIC, which resets the In-Service Register. If the request came from PIC2, then EOI's
are required to be sent to both PICs. The PIC will then determine the next highest
priority interrupt and repeat the same process. If no Interrupt Requests are present,
then the PIC waits for the next request before interrupting the processor.
IRQ2/IRQ9 Redirection
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The redirection of IRQ2 causes quite some confusion, and thus is discussed here. In
the original XT's there were only one PIC, thus only eight IRQ's. However users soon
out grew these resources, thus an additional 7 IRQ's were added to the PC. This
involved attaching another PIC to the existing one already in the XT. Compatibility
always causes problems as the new configuration still had to be compatible with old
hardware and software. The "new" configuration is shown below.
The CPU only has one interrupt line, thus the second controller had to be connected
to the first controller, in a master/slave configuration. IRQ2 was selected for this. By
using IRQ2 for the second controller, no other devices could use IRQ2, so what
happened to all these devices using IRQ2? Nothing, the interrupt request line found
on the bus, was simply diverted into the IRQ 9 input. As no devices yet used the
second PIC or IRQ9, this could be done.
The next problem was that a hardware device using IRQ2 would install it's ISR at INT
0x0A. Therefore an ISR routine was used at INT 71h, which sent a EOI to PIC2 and
then called the ISR at INT 0x0A. If you dis-assemble the ISR for IRQ9, it will go a little
like,
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MOV AL,20
OUT A0,AL
INT 0A
IRET
; Send EOI to PIC2
; Call ISR for IRQ2
The routine only has to send a EOI to PIC2, as it is expected that a ISR routine written
for IRQ2 will send a EOI to PIC1. This example destroys the contents of Register AL,
thus this must be placed on the stack first (Not shown in example). As PIC2 is
initialized with a Slave on IRQ2, any request using PIC2 will not call the ISR routine for
IRQ2. The 8 bit pointer will come from PIC2.
Programmable Interrupt Controller's Addresses
The two PIC's found in an IBM compatible system are initialized via BIOS thus you
don't have to worry about all of their registers. However for some people, who have
inquisitive minds the following information may come in some use or maybe you want
to (re)program a BIOS? Below is a table of all the command words of the 8259 and
compatible Programmable Interrupt Controller. The Top Table shows the Addresses
for the PIC1, while the bottom table shows addresses for PIC2.
Address
20h
Read/Write
Function
Write
Initialization Command Word 1 (ICW1)
Write
Operation Command Word 2 (OCW2)
Write
Operation Command Word 3 (OCW3)
Read
Interrupt Request Register (IRR)
Read
In-Service Register (ISR)
Write
Initialization Command Word 2 (ICW2)
Write
Initialization Command Word 3 (ICW3)
Write
Initialization Command Word 4 (ICW4)
21h
Read/Write
Interrupt Mask Register (IMR)
Table 4 : Addresses/Registers for PIC1
PIC2 Addresses . . .
Address
A0h
Read/Write
Function
Write
Initialization Command Word 1 (ICW1)
Write
Operation Command Word 2 (OCW2)
Write
Operation Command Word 3 (OCW3)
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Read
Interrupt Request Register (IRR)
Read
In-Service Register (ISR)
Write
Initialization Command Word 2 (ICW2)
Write
Initialization Command Word 3 (ICW3)
Write
Initialization Command Word 4 (ICW4)
A1h
Read/Write
Interrupt Mask Register (IMR)
Table 5 : Addresses/Registers for PIC2
Initialization Command Word 1 (ICW1)
If the PIC has been reset, it must be initialized with 2 to 4 Initialization Command
Words (ICW) before it will accept and process Interrupt Requests. The following
selection outlines the four possible Initialization Command Words.
Bit(s)
7:5
4
Function
Interrupt Vector Addresses for MCS-80/85 Mode.
Must be set to 1 for ICW1
1
Level Triggered Interrupts
0
Edge Triggered Interrupts
1
Call Address Interval of 4
0
Call Address Interval of 8
1
Single PIC
0
Cascaded PICs
1
Will be Sending ICW4
0
Don't need ICW4
3
2
1
0
Table 6 : Initialization Command Word 1 (ICW1)
The 8259 Programmable Interrupt Controller, offers many other features which are not
used in the PC. It also offers support for MCS-80/85 microprocessors. All we have to
be aware of being PC uses, is if the system is running in single mode (One PIC) or if in
Cascaded Mode (More than one PIC) and if the Initialization Command Word 4 is
needed. If no ICW4 is used, then all of it's bits will be set to 0. As we are using it in
8086 mode, we must send a ICW4.
Initialization Command Word 2 (ICW2)
Bit
8086/8080 Mode
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MCS 80/85 Mode
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7
I7
A15
6
I6
A14
5
I5
A13
4
I4
A12
3
I3
A11
2
-
A10
1
-
A9
0
-
A8
Table 7 : Initialization Command Word 2 (ICW2)
Initialization Command Word 2 (ICW2) selects which vector information is released
onto the bus, during the 2nd INTA Pulse. Using the 8086 mode, only bits 7:3 need to
be used. This will be 00001000 (0x08) for PIC1 and 01110000 (0x70) for PIC2. If you
wish to relocate the IRQ Vector Table, then you can use this register.
Initialization Command Word 3 (ICW3)
There are two different Initialization Command Word 3's. One is used, if the PIC is a
master, while the other is used for slaves. The top table shows the ICW3 for the
master.
Bit
Function
7
IR7 is connected to a Slave
6
IR6 is connected to a Slave
5
IR5 is connected to a Slave
4
IR4 is connected to a Slave
3
IR3 is connected to a Slave
2
IR2 is connected to a Slave
1
IR1 is connected to a Slave
0
IR0 is connected to a Slave
Table 8 : Initialization Command Word 3 for Master PIC (ICW3)
And for the slave device, the ICW3 below is used.
Bit(s)
Function
7
Reserved. Set to 0
6
Reserved. Set to 0
5
Reserved. Set to 0
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4
Reserved. Set to 0
3
Reserved. Set to 0
2:0
Slave ID
000
Slave 0
001
Slave 1
010
Slave 2
011
Slave 3
100
Slave 4
101
Slave 5
110
Slave 6
111
Slave 7
Table 9 : Initialization Command Word 3 for Slaves (ICW3)
Initialization Command Word 4 (ICW4)
Bit(s)
Function
7
Reserved. Set to 0
6
Reserved. Set to 0
5
Reserved. Set to 0
1
Special Fully Nested Mode
0
Not Special Fully Nested Mode
0x
Non - Buffered Mode
10
Buffered Mode - Slave
11
Buffered Mode - Master
1
Auto EOI
0
Normal EOI
1
8086/8080 Mode
0
MCS-80/85
4
3:2
1
0
Table 10 : Initialization Command Word 4 (ICW4)
Once again, many of these are special functions not used with the 8259 PIC in a PC.
We don't use, Special Fully Nested Mode, thus this bit is set to 0. Likewise we use
non-buffered mode and Normal EOI's thus all these corresponding bits are set to 0.
The only thing we must set is 8086/8080 Mode which is done using Bit 0.
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Operation Control Word 1 (OCW1)
Once all the required Initialization Command Words have been sent to the PIC,
then you can send Operation Control Words, in any order and at any time
during the PIC's operation. The Operation Control Words are shown in the next
sections.
Bit
PIC 2
PIC 1
7
Mask IRQ15
Mask IRQ7
6
Mask IRQ14
Mask IRQ6
5
Mask IRQ13
Mask IRQ5
4
Mask IRQ12
Mask IRQ4
3
Mask IRQ11
Mask IRQ3
2
Mask IRQ10
Mask IRQ2
1
Mask IRQ9
Mask IRQ1
0
Mask IRQ8
Mask IRQ0
Table 11 : Operation Control Word 1 (OCW1)
Operation Control Word 1, shown above is used to mask the inputs of the PIC. This
has already been discussed, earlier in this article.
Operation Control Word 2 (OCW2)
Bit(s)
Function
7:5
000
Rotate in Auto EOI Mode (Clear)
001
Non Specific EOI
010
Reserved
011
Specific EOI
100
Rotate in Auto EOI Mode (Set)
101
Rotate on Non-Specific EOI
110
Set Priority Command (Use Bits 2:0)
111
Rotate on Specific EOI (Use Bits 2:0)
4
Must be set to 0
3
Must be set to 0
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2:0
000
Act on IRQ 0 or 8
001
Act on IRQ 1 or 9
010
Act on IRQ 2 or 10
011
Act on IRQ 3 or 11
100
Act on IRQ 4 or 12
101
Act on IRQ 5 or 13
110
Act on IRQ 6 or 14
111
Act on IRQ 7 or 15
Table 12 : Operation Control Word 2 (OCW2)
Operation Control Word 2 selects how the End of Interrupt (EOI) procedure works. The
only thing of interest to us in this register is the non-specific EOI command, which we
must send at the end of our ISR's.
Operation Control Word 3 (OCW3)
Bit(s)
7
6:5
Function
Must be set to 0
00
Reserved
01
Reserved
10
Reset Special Mask
11
Set Special Mask
4
Must be set to 0
3
Must be set to 1
1
Poll Command
0
No Poll Command
00
Reserved
01
Reserved
10
Next Read Returns Interrupt Request Register
11
Next Read Returns In-Service Register
2
1:0
Table 13 : Operation Control Word 3 (OCW3)
Bits 0 and 1 are of the most significant to us, in Operation Control Word 3. These two
bits enable us to read the status of the Interrupt Request Register (IRR) and the InService Register (ISR). This is done by setting the appropriate bits correctly as above,
and reading the register at the Base Address.
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For example if we wanted to read the In-Service Register (ISR), then we would set both
bits 1 and 0 to 1. The next read to the base register, (0x20 for PIC1 or 0xA0 for PIC2)
will return the status of the In-Service Register.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/reference/list_of_intel_microprocessors
List of Intel microprocessors
This list of Intel
microprocessors attempts to present all of Intel's processors (µPs)
from the pioneering 4-bit 4004 (1971) to the present high-end offerings, the 64-bit
Itanium 2 (2002) and Pentium 4F with EM64T(2004). Concise technical data are given
for each product.
The 4-bit and 8-bit processors
Intel 4004: 1st single-chip µP
Introduced November 15, 1971
Clock speed 740 kHz
0.06 MIPS
Bus Width 4 bits (multiplexed address/data due to limited pins)
PMOS
Number of Transistors 2,300 at 10 μm
Addressable Memory 640 bytes
Program Memory 4K bytes
World's first microprocessor
Used in Busicom calculator
Trivia: The original goal was to equal the clock speed of the IBM 1620; this was
not quite met.
4040
Introduced 4th Qtr, 1974
Clock speed of 500 kHz to 740 kHz using 4 to 5.185 MHz crystals
0.06 MIPS
Bus Width 4 bits (multiplexed address/data due to limited pins)
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
PMOS
Number of Transistors 3,000 at 10 μm
Addressable Memory 640 bytes
Program Memory 8K bytes
Interrupts
Enhanced version of 4004
8008
Introduced April 1, 1972
Clock speed 500 kHz (8008-1: 800 kHz)
0.05 MIPS
Bus Width 8 bits (multiplexed address/data due to limited pins)
PMOS
Number of Transistors 3,500 at 10 μm
Addressable memory 16 kilobytes
Typical in dumb terminals, general calculators, bottling machines
Developed in tandem with 4004
Originally intended for use in the Datapoint 2200 terminal
8080
Introduced April 1, 1974
Clock speed 2MHz
0.64 MIPS
Bus Width 8 bits data, 16 bits address
NMOS
Number of Transistors 6,000 at 6 μm
Addressable memory 64 kilobytes
10X the performance of the 8008
Used in the Altair 8800, Traffic light controller, cruise missile
Required six support chips versus 20 for the 8008
8085
Introduced March 1976
Clock speed 5MHz
0.37 MIPS
Bus Width 8 bits data, 16 bits address
Number of Transistors 6,500 at 3 μm
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Used in Toledo scale
High level of integration, operating for the first time on a single 5 volt power
supply, from 12 volts previously
The 16-bit processors: Origin of x86
8086
Introduced June 8, 1978
Clock speeds:
5MHz with 0.33 MIPS
8MHz with 0.66MIPS
10MHz with 0.75 MIPS
Bus Width 16 bits data, 20 bits address
Number of Transistors 29,000 at 3 μm
Addressable memory 1 megabyte
10X the performance of 8080
Used in portable computing
Assembly language compatible with 8080
Used segment registers to access more than 64K of data at once, bane of
programmers' existence for years to come
8088
Introduced June 1, 1979
Clock speeds:
5MHz with 0.33 MIPS
8MHz with 0.75 MIPS
Internal architecture 16 bits
External bus Width 8 bits data, 20 bits address
Number of Transistors 29,000 at 3 μm
Addressable memory 1 megabyte
Identical to 8086 except for its 8 bit external bus
Used in IBM PCs and PC clones
iAPX 432 (chronological entry)
Introduced January 1, 1981
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Multi-chip CPU; Intel's first 32-bit microprocessor
See main entry
80186
Introduced 1982
Used mostly in embedded applications - controllers, point-of-sale systems,
terminals, and the like
Included two timers, a DMA controller, and an interrupt controller on the chip in
addition to the processor
Later renamed the iAPX 186
80188
A version of the 80186 with an 8-bit external data bus
Later renamed the iAPX 188
80286
Introduced February 1, 1982
Clock speeds:
6MHz with 0.9 MIPS
8MHz, 10MHz with 1.5 MIPS
12.5MHz with 2.66 MIPS
Bus Width 16 bits
Included memory protection hardware to support multitasking operating
systems with per-process address space
Number of Transistors 134,000 at 1.5 μm
Addressable memory 16 megabytes
Added protected-mode features to 8086 with essentially the same instruction
set
3-6X the performance of the 8086
Widely used in PC clones at the time
32-bit processors: The non-x86 µPs
iAPX 432
Introduced January 1, 1981 as Intel's first 32-bit microprocessor
Object/capability architecture
Microcoded operating system primitives
One terabyte virtual address space
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Hardware support for fault tolerance
Two-chip General Data Processor (GDP), consists of 43201 and 43202
43203 Interface Processor (IP) interfaces to I/O subsystem
43204 Bus Interface Unit (BIU) simplifies building multiprocessor systems
43205 Memory Control Unit (MCU)
Architecture and execution unit internal data paths 32 bit
Clock speeds:
5 MHz
7 MHz
8 MHz
80186, 80188, 80286, 80386(DX) (chronological entries)
Introduced 1981–1988
See main entries
i960 aka 80960
Introduced April 5, 1988
RISC-like 32-bit architecture
predominantly used in embedded systems
Evolved from the capability processor developed for the BiiN joint venture with
Siemens
Many variants identified by two-letter suffixes.
80386SX (chronological entry)
Introduced June 16, 1988
See main entry
80376 (chronological entry)
Introduced January 16, 1989
See main entry
i860 aka 80860
Introduced February 27, 1989
Intel's first superscalarprocessor
RISC 32/64-bit architecture, with pipeline characteristics very visible to
programmer
Used in Intel Paragon massively parallel supercomputer
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
XScale
Introduced August 23, 2000
32-bit RISC microprocessor based on the ARM architecture
Many variants, such as the PXA2xx applications processors, IOP3xx I/O
processors and IXP2xxx and IXP4xx network processors.
32-bit processors: The 80386 range
80386DX
Introduced October 17, 1985
Clock speeds:
16MHz with 5 to 6 MIPS
2/16/1987 20MHz with 6 to 7 MIPS
4/4/1988 25MHz with 8.5 MIPS
4/10/1989 33MHz with 11.4 MIPS (9.4 SPECint92 on Compaq/i 16K L2)
Bus Width 32 bits
Number of Transistors 275,000 at 1 μm
Addressable memory 4 gigabytes
Virtual memory 64 terabytes
First x86 chip to handle 32-bit data sets
Reworked and expanded memory protection support including paged virtual
memory and virtual-86 mode, features required by Windows 95and OS/2 Warp
Used in Desktop computing
Can address enough memory to manage an eight-page history of every person
on earth
Can scan the Encyclopædia Britannica in 12.5 seconds
80960 (i960) (chronological entry)
Introduced April 5, 1988
See main entry
80386SX
Introduced June 16, 1988
Clock speeds:
16MHz with 2.5 MIPS
1/25/1989 20MHz with 2.5 MIPS, 25MHz with 2.7 MIPS
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
10/26/1992 33MHz with 2.9 MIPS
Internal architecture 32 bits
External bus width 16 bits
Number of Transitors 275,000 at 1 μm
Addressable memory 16 megabytes
Virtual memory 256 gigabytes
16-bit address bus enable low cost 32-bit processing
Built in multitasking
Used in entry-level desktop and portable computing
80376
Introduced January 16, 1989; Discontinued June 15, 2001
Variant of 386 intended for embedded systems
No "real mode", starts up directly in "protected mode"
Replaced by much more successful 80386EX from 1994
80860 (i860) (chronological entry)
Introduced February 27, 1989
See main entry
80486DX (chronological entry)
Introduced April 10, 1989
See main entry
80386SL
Introduced October 15, 1990
Clock speeds:
20MHz with 4.21 MIPS
9/30/1991 25MHz with 5.3 MIPS
Internal architecture 32 bits
External bus width 16 bits
Number of Transistors 855,000 at 1 μm
Addressable memory 4 gigabytes
Virtual memory 64 terabytes
First chip specifically made for portable computers because of low power
consumption of chip
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Highly integrated, includes cache, bus, and memory controllers
80486SX/DX2/SL, Pentium, 80486DX4 (chronological entries)
Introduced 1991–1994
See main entries
Intel386 EX
Introduced August 1994
Variant of 80386SX intended for embedded systems
Static core, i.e. may run as slowly (and thus, power efficiently) as desired, down
to full halt
On-chip peripherals:
clock and power mgmt
timers/counters
watchdog timer
serial I/O units (sync and async) and parallel I/O
DMA
RAM refresh
JTAG test logic
Significantly more successful than the 80376
Used aboard several orbiting satellites and microsatellites
Used in NASA's FlightLinux project
32-bit processors: The 80486 range
80486DX
Introduced April 10, 1989
Clock speeds:
25MHz with 20 MIPS (16.8 SPECint92, 7.40 SPECfp92)
5/7/1990 33MHz with 27 MIPS (22.4 SPECint92 on Micronics M4P 128k L2)
6/24/1991 50MHz with 41 MIPS (33.4 SPECint92, 14.5 SPECfp92 on
Compaq/50L 256K L2)
Bus Width 32 bits
Number of Transistors 1.2 million at 1 μm; the 50MHz was at 0.8 μm
Addressable memory 4 gigabytes
Virtual memory 64 terabytes
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Level 1 cache on chip
50X performance of the 8088
Used in Desktop computing and servers
80386SL (chronological entry)
Introduced October 15, 1990
See main entry
80486SX
Introduced April 22, 1991
Clock speeds:
9/16/1991 16MHz with 13 MIPS, 20MHz with 16.5 MIPS
9/16/1991 25MHz with 20 MIPS (12 SPECint92)
9/21/1992 33MHz with 27 MIPS (15.86 SPECint92)
Bus Width 32 bits
Number of Transistors 1.185 million at 1 μm and 900,000 at 0.8 μm
Addressable memory 4 gigabytes
Virtual memory 64 terabytes
Identical in design to 486DX but without math coprocessor
Used in low-cost entry to 486 CPU desktop computing
Upgradable with the Intel OverDrive processor
80486DX2
Introduced March 3, 1992
Clock speeds:
50MHz with 41 MIPS (29.9 SPECint92, 14.2 SPECfp92 on Micronics M4P
256K L2)
8/10/1992 66 MHz with 54 MIPS (39.6 SPECint92, 18.8 SPECfp92 on
Micronics M4P 256K L2)
Bus Width 32 bits
Number of Transistors 1.2 million at 0.8 μm
Addressable memory 4 gigabytes
Virtual memory 64 terabytes
Used in high performance, low cost desktops
Uses "speed doubler" technology where the microprocessor core runs at twice
the speed of the bus
80486SL
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Introduced November 9, 1992
Clock speeds:
20MHz with 15.4MIPS
25MHz with 19 MIPS
33MHz with 25 MIPS
Bus Width 32 bits
Number of Transistors 1.4 million at 0.8 μm
Addressable memory 64 megabytes
Virtual memory 64 terabytes
Used in notebook PCS
Pentium (chronological entry)
Introduced March 22, 1993
See main entry
80486DX4
Introduced March 7, 1994
Clock speeds:
75MHz with 53 MIPS (41.3 SPECint92, 20.1 SPECfp92 on Micronics M4P
256K L2)
100MHz with 70.7 MIPS (54.59 SPECint92, 26.91 SPECfp92 on Micronics M4P
256K L2)
Number of Transistors 1.6 million at 0.6 μm
Bus width 32 bits
Addressable memory 4 gigabytes
Virtual memory 64 terabytes
Pin count 168 PGA Package, 208 SQFP Package
Die size 345 Square mm
Used in high performance entry-level desktops and value notebooks
32-bit processors: The Pentium ("I")
Pentium ("Classic")
Introduced March 22, 1993
P5 0.8 μm process technology
Bus width 64 bits
System bus speed 50 or 60 or 66 MHz
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Address bus 32 bits
Number of transistors 3.1 million
Addressable Memory 4 gigabytes
Virtual Memory 64 terabytes
Socket 4 273 pin PGA processor package
Package dimensions 2.16" x 2.16"
Superscalar architecture brought 5X the performance of the 33MHz 486DX
processor
Runs on 5 volts
Used in desktops
16KB of L1 cache
Variants
60 MHz with 100 MIPS (70.4 SPECint92, 55.1 SPECfp92 on Xpress 256K L2)
66 MHz with 112 MIPS (77.9 SPECint92, 63.6 SPECfp92 on Xpress 256K L2)
P54C 0.6 μm process technology
Socket 7 296/321 pin PGA package
Number of transistors 3.2 million
75 MHz Introduced October 10, 1994
90 MHz Introduced March 7, 1994
100 MHz Introduced March 7, 1994
120 MHz Introduced March 27, 1995
P54C 0.35 ²m process technology
Number of transistors 3.3 million
90mm die size
120 MHz Introduced March, 1995
133 MHz Introduced June, 1995
150 MHz Introduced January 4, 1996
166 MHz Introduced January 4, 1996
200 MHz Introduced June 10, 1996
80486DX4 (chronological entry)
Introduced March 7, 1994
See main entry
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
80386EX (Intel386 EX) (chronological entry)
Introduced August 1994
See main entry
Pentium Pro (chronological entry)
Introduced November 1995
See main entry
Pentium MMX
Introduced January 8, 1997
P55C 0.35 μm process technology
Intel MMX instructions
Socket 7 296/321 pin PGA (pin grid array) package
32KB L1 cache
Number of transistors 4.5 million
System bus speed 66 MHz
Variants
166 MHz Introduced January 8, 1997
200 MHz Introduced January 8, 1997
233 MHz Introduced June 2, 1997
166 MHz (Mobile) Introduced January 12, 1998
200 MHz (Mobile) Introduced September 8, 1997
233 MHz (Mobile) Introduced September 8, 1997
266 MHz (Mobile) Introduced January 12, 1998
300 MHz (Mobile) Introduced January 7, 1999
32-bit processors: Pentium Pro, II, Celeron, III, M
Pentium Pro
Introduced November 1, 1995
0.6 μm process technology
Precursor to Pentium II and III
Socket 8 processor package (387 pins) (Dual SPGA)
Number of transistors 22 million
16KB L1 cache
256KB integrated L2 cache
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
60 MHz system bus speed
Variants
150 MHz Introduced November 1, 1995
0.35 μm process technology, or 0.35 μm CPU with 0.6 μm L2 cache
Introduced November 1, 1995
Number of transistors 36.5 million or 22 million
512KB or 256KB integrated L2 cache
60 or 66 MHz system bus speed
Variants
166 MHz (66 MHz bus speed, 512KB 0.35 μm cache) Introduced November 1,
1995
180 MHz (60 MHz bus speed, 256KB 0.6 μm cache) Introduced November 1,
1995
200 MHz (66 MHz bus speed, 256KB 0.6 μm cache) Introduced November 1,
1995
200 MHz (66 MHz bus speed, 512KB 0.35 μm cache) Introduced November 1,
1995
200 MHz (66 MHz bus speed, 1MB 0.35 μm cache) Introduced August 18,
1997
Pentium II
Introduced May 7, 1997
Klamath 0.35 μm process technology (233, 266, 300MHz)
Pentium Pro with MMX and improved 16-bit performance
242-pin Slot 1 (SEC) processor package
Number of transistors 7.5 million
66MHz system bus speed
32KB L1 cache
512KB 1/2 speed external L2 cache
Variants
233 MHz Introduced May 7, 1997
266 MHz Introduced May 7, 1997
300 MHz Introduced May 7, 1997
Deschutes 0.25 μm process technology (333, 250, 400, 450MHz)
Introduced January 26, 1998
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
66MHz system bus speed (333MHz variant), 100MHz system bus speed for all
models after
Variants
333 MHz Introduced January 26, 1998
350 MHz Introduced April 15, 1998
400 MHz Introduced April 15, 1998
450 MHz Introduced August 24, 1998
233 MHz (Mobile) Introduced April 2, 1998
266 MHz (Mobile) Introduced April 2, 1998
300 MHz (Mobile) Introduced September 9, 1998
333 MHz (Mobile)
Celeron (Pentium II-based)
Introduced April 15, 1998
Covington - 0.25 μm process technology
242-pin Slot 1 SEPP (Single Edge Processor Package), Socket 370 PPGA
package
Number of transistors 7.5 million
66MHz system bus speed
32KB L1 cache
No L2 cache
Variants
266 MHz Introduced April 15, 1998
300 MHz Introduced June 9, 1998
Mendocino - 0.25 μm process technology
Introduced August 24, 1998
242-pin Slot 1SEPP (Single Edge Processor Package), Socket 370 PPGA
package
Number of transistors 19 million
66MHz system bus speed
32KB L1 cache
128KB integrated cache
Variants
300A MHz Introduced August 24, 1998
333 MHz Introduced August 24, 1998
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
366 MHz Introduced January 4, 1999
400 MHz Introduced January 4, 1999
433 MHz Introduced March 22, 1999
466 MHz
500 MHz Introduced August 2, 1999
533 MHz Introduced January 4, 2000
266 MHz (Mobile)
300 MHz (Mobile)
333 MHz (Mobile) Introduced April 5, 1999
366 MHz (Mobile)
400 MHz (Mobile)
433 MHz (Mobile)
450 MHz (Mobile) Introduced February 14, 2000
466 MHz (Mobile)
500 MHz (Mobile) Introduced February 14, 2000
Pentium II Xeon chronological entry)
Introduced June 29, 1998
See main entry
Pentium III
Introduced February 26, 1999
Katmai - 0.25 μm process technology
Improved PII, i.e. P6-based core, now including Streaming SIMD Extensions
(SSE)
Number of transistors 9.5 million
512KB 1/2 speed L2 External cache
242-pin Slot-1 SECC2 (Single Edge Contact cartridge 2) processor package
System Bus Speed 100 MHz
Variants
450 MHz Introduced February 26, 1999
500 MHz Introduced February 26, 1999
550 MHz Introduced May 17, 1999
600 MHz Introduced August 2, 1999
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
533 MHz Introduced (133MHz bus speed) September 27, 1999
600 MHz Introduced (133MHz bus speed) September 27, 1999
Coppermine - 0.18 μm process technology
Introduced October 25, 1999
Number of transistors 28.1 million
256KB Advanced Transfer L2 Cache (Integrated)
242-pin Slot-1 SECC2 (Single Edge Contact cartridge 2) processor package, 370pin FC-PGA (Flip-chip pin grid array) package
System Bus Speed 100 MHz, 133 MHz (Those with 133 MHz bus carried a 'B'
suffix in their name)
Variants
500 MHz (100MHz bus speed)
533 MHz
550 MHz (100MHz bus speed)
600 MHz
600 MHz (100MHz bus speed)
650 MHz (100MHz bus speed) Introduced October 25, 1999
667 MHz Introduced October 25, 1999
700 MHz (100MHz bus speed) Introduced October 25, 1999
733 MHz Introduced October 25, 1999
750 MHz (100MHz bus speed) Introduced December 20, 1999
800 MHz (100MHz bus speed) Introduced December 20, 1999
800 MHz Introduced December 20, 1999
850 MHz (100MHz bus speed) Introduced March 20, 2000
866 MHz Introduced March 20, 2000
933 MHz Introduced May 24, 2000
1000 MHz Introduced March 8, 2000 (Not widely available at time of release)
400 MHz (Mobile) Introduced October 25, 1999
450 MHz (Mobile) Introduced October 25, 1999
500 MHz (Mobile) Introduced October 25, 1999
600 MHz (Mobile) Introduced January 18, 2000
650 MHz (Mobile) Introduced January 18, 2000
700 MHz (Mobile) Introduced April 24, 2000
750 MHz (Mobile) Introduced June 19, 2000
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
800 MHz (Mobile) Introduced September 25, 2000
850 MHz (Mobile) Introduced September 25, 2000
900 MHz (Mobile) Introducted March 19, 2001
1000 MHz (Mobile) Introducted March 19, 2001
Tualatin - 0.13 μm process technology
Introduced July 2001
Number of transistors 28.1 million
32KB L1 cache
256KB or 512KB Advanced Transfer L2 cache (Integrated)
370-pin FC-PGA (Flip-chip pin grid array) package
133 MHz system bus speed
Variants
1133 MHz (512KB L2)
1200 MHz
1266 MHz (512KB L2)
1333 MHz
1400 MHz (512KB L2)
Pentium II and III Xeon
PII Xeon
Variants
400 MHz Introduced June 29, 1998
450 MHz (512 KB L2 Cache) Introduced October 6, 1998
450 MHz (1 MB and 2 MB L2 Cache) Introduced January 5, 1999
PIII Xeon
Introduced October 25, 1999
Number of transistors: 9.5 million at 0.25 μm or 28 million at 0.18 μm)
L2 cache is 256KB, 1MB, or 2MB Advanced Transfer Cache (Integrated)
Processor Package Style is Single Edge Contact Cartridge (S.E.C.C.2) or SC330
System Bus Speed 133 MHz (256KB L2 cache) or 100 MHz (1-2MB L2 cache)
System Bus Width 64 bit
Addressable memory 64 gigabytes
Used in two-way servers and workstations (256KB L2) or 4- and 8-way servers
(1-2MB L2)
Variants
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
500 MHz (0.25 μm process) Introduced March 17, 1999
550 MHz (0.25 μm process) Introduced August 23, 1999
600 MHz (0.18 μm process, 256KB L2 cache) Introduced October 25, 1999
667 MHz (0.18 μm process, 256KB L2 cache) Introduced October 25, 1999
733 MHz (0.18 μm process, 256KB L2 cache) Introduced October 25, 1999
800 MHz (0.18 μm process, 256KB L2 cache) Introduced January 12, 2000
866 MHz (0.18 μm process, 256KB L2 cache) Introduced April 10, 2000
933 MHz (0.18 μm process, 256KB L2 cache)
1000 MHz (0.18 μm process, 256KB L2 cache) Introduced August 22, 2000
700 MHz (0.18 μm process, 1-2MB L2 cache) Introduced May 22, 2000
Celeron (Pentium III Coppermine-based)
Introduced March,2000
Coppermine-128 - 0.18 μm process technology
Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE)
Socket 370
PPGA processor package
Number of transistors 28.1 million
66MHz system bus speed, 100MHz system bus speed on January 3, 2001
32KB L1 cache
128KB Advanced Transfer L2 cache
Variants
533 MHz
566 MHz
633 MHz Introduced June 26, 2000
667 MHz Introduced June 26, 2000
700 MHz Introduced June 26, 2000
733 MHz Introduced November 13, 2000
766 MHz Introduced November 13, 2000
800 MHz
850 MHz Introducted April 9, 2001
900 MHz Introducted July 2, 2001
950 MHz Introduced August 31, 2001
1000 MHz Introduced August 31, 2001
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
1100 MHz Introduced August 31, 2001
1200 MHz Introduced October 2, 2001
1300 MHz Introduced January 3, 2002
550 MHz (Mobile)
600 MHz (Mobile) Introduced June 19, 2000
650 MHz (Mobile) Introduced June 19, 2000
700 MHz (Mobile) Introduced September 25, 2000
750 MHz (Mobile) Introducted March 19, 2001
800 MHz (Mobile)
850 MHz (Mobile) Introduced July 2, 2001
600 MHz (LV Mobile)
500 MHz (ULV Mobile) Introducted January 30, 2001
600 MHz (ULV Mobile)
XScale (chronological entry)
Introduced August 23, 2000
See main entry
Pentium 4 (not 4EE, 4E, 4F), Itanium, P4-based Xeon, Itanium 2 (chronological entries)
Introduced April 2000 – July 2002
See main entries
Celeron (Pentium III Tualatin-based)
Tualatin Celeron - 0.13 μm process technology
32KB L1 cache
256KB Advanced Transfer L2 cache
100 MHz system bus speed
Variants
1.0 GHz
1.1 GHz
1.2 GHz
1.3 GHz
1.4 GHz
Pentium M
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Introduced March 2003
Banias 0.13 μm process technology
64KB L1 cache
1MB L2 cache (integrated)
Based on Pentium III core, with SIMD SSE2 instructions and deeper pipeline
Number of transistors 77 million
Micro-FCPGA, Micro-FCBGA processor package
Heart of the Intel mobile "Centrino" system
400 MHz Netburst-style system bus.
Variants
900MHz (Ultra low voltage)
1.0 GHz (Ultra low voltage)
1.1 GHz (Low voltage)
1.2 GHz (Low voltage)
1.3 GHz
1.4 GHz
1.5 GHz
1.6 GHz
1.7 GHz
Dothan 0.09 μm (90nm) process technology
Introduced May 2004
2MB L2 cache
Revised data prefetch unit
Variants
1.0 GHz (Ultra low voltage)
1.1 GHz (Ultra low voltage)
1.3 GHz (Low voltage)
1.4 GHz (Low voltage)
1.5 GHz
1.6 GHz
1.7 GHz
1.8 GHz
1.9 GHz
2.0 GHz
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2.1 GHz
2.2 GHz (To arrive in Q3 2005)
Yonah 0.065 μm (65nm) process technology
To be introduced 2006
Dual Core variants with 2MB Shared L2 cache
Variants
None yet announced
Celeron M
Banias-512 0.13 μm process technology
Introduced March 2003
64KB L1 cache
512KB L2 cache (integrated)
No SpeedStep technology, is not part of the 'Centrino' package
32-bit processors: Pentium 4 range
Pentium 4
0.18 μm process technology (1.40 and 1.50 GHz)
Introduced November 20, 2000
L2 cache was 256KB Advanced Tansfer Cache (Integrated)
Processor Package Style was PGA423, PGA478
System Bus Speed 400 MHz
SSE2 SIMD Extensions
Number of Transistors 42 million
Used in desktops and entry-level workstations
0.18 μm process technology (1.7 GHz)
Introduced April 23, 2001
See the 1.4 and 1.5 chips for details
0.18 μm process technology (1.6 and 1.8 GHz)
Introduced July 2, 2001
See 1.4 and 1.5 chips for details
Core Voltage is 1.15 volts in Maximum Performance Mode; 1.05 volts in
Battery Optimized Mode
Power <1 watt in Battery Optimized Mode
Used in full-size and then light mobile PCs
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0.18 μm process technology "Willamette" (1.9 and 2.0 GHz)
Introduced August 27, 2001
See 1.4 and 1.5 chips for details
Pentium 4 (2 GHz, 2.20 GHz)
Introduced January 7, 2002
Pentium 4 (2.4 GHz)
Introduced April 2, 2002
0.13 μm process technology "Northwood A"(1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 2, 2.2, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 GHz)
Improved branch prediction and other microcodes tweaks
512KB integrated L2 cache
Number of transistors 55 million
400 MHz system bus.
0.13 μm process technology "Northwood B" (2.26, 2.4, 2.53, 2.66, 2.8, 3.06 GHz)
533 MHz system bus. (3.06 includes Intel's hyper threading technology).
0.13 μm process technology "Northwood C" (2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 3.0, 3.2, 3.4 GHz)
800MHz system bus (all versions include Hyper Threading)
6500 to 10000 MIPS
Itanium (chronological entry)
Introduced 2001
See main entry
Xeon
Official designation now Xeon, i.e. not "Pentium 4 Xeon"
Xeon 1.4, 1.5, 1.7 GHz
Introduced May 21, 2001
L2 cache was 256KB Advanced Transfer Cache (Integrated)
Processor Package Style was Organic Lan Grid Array 603 (OLGA 603)
System Bus Speed 400MHz
SSE2 SIMD Extensions
Used in high-performance and mid-range dual processor enabled
workstations
Xeon 2.0 GHz
Introduced September 25, 2001
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Itanium 2 (chronological entry)
Introduced July 2002
See main entry
Pentium 4EE
Introduced September 2003
EE = "Extreme Edition"
same as Pentium 4 Processor, but with 2MB onboard L3 Cache
Pentium 4E
Introduced February 2004
built on 0.09 μm (90 nm) process technology "Prescott" (2.4A, 2.8, 2.8A, 3.0, 3.2,
3.4) 1MB L2 cache
533MHz system bus (2.4A and 2.8A only)
800MHz system bus (all other models)
Hyper-Threading support is only available on CPUs using the 800MHz system
bus.
The processor's integer instruction pipeline has been increased from 20 stages
to 31 stages, which theoretically allows for even greater clock speeds.
7500 to 11000 MIPS
Pentium 4F
Introduced Spring 2004
same core as 4E, "Prescott"
3.2–3.6 GHz
starting with the D0 stepping of this processor, EM64T 64-bit extensions has
also been incorporated
Pentium D
Introduced Q2 2005
"Smithfield" dual-core version
2.8–3.2 GHz
1MB+1MB L2 cache (non-shared, 2MB total)
800MHz system-bus
Not hyperthreading, performance increase of 60% over similarly clocked
Prescott
Cache-coherency between cores requires communication over the 800MHz FSB
The 64-bit processors: Itanium & ...
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www.bookspar.com | Website for students | VTU NOTES
Itanium
Released May 29, 2001
733 MHz and 800 MHz
Itanium 2
Released July 2002
900 MHz and 1 GHz
Pentium M (chronological entry)
Introduced March 2003
See main entry
Pentium 4EE, 4E (chronological entries)
Introduced September 2003, February 2004, respectively
See main entries
EM64T
Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology
Introduced Spring 2004, with the Pentium 4F (D0 and later P4 steppings)
64-bit architecture extension for the x86 range; near clone of AMD64
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