Introduction to Microprocessor

A Microprocessor is a multipurpose programmable, clock driven, register based electronic device that reads binary instructions from a storage device called memory, accepts binary data as input, processes data according to those instructions and provide result s as output. The microprocessor operates in binary 0 and 1 known as bits are represented in terms of electrical voltages in the machine that means 0 represents low voltage level and 1 represents high voltage level. Each microprocessor recognizes and processes a group of bits called the word and microprocessors are classified according to their word length such as 8 bits microprocessor with 8 bit word and 32 bit microprocessor with 32 bit word etc.

CPU: - Central processing unit which consists of ALU and control unit.
Microprocessor: - Single chip containing all units of CPU.
Microcomputer: - Computer having microprocessor as CPU. Microcontroller: single chip consisting of MPU, memory, I/O and interfacing circuits.
MPU: - Microprocessing unit – complete processing unit with the necessary control signals.
1.2 Basic Block Diagram of a Computer
Traditionally, the computer is represented with four components such as memory, input, output and central processing unit (CPU) which consists of arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and control unit (CU).