Download Microprocessor Fundamentals

Microprocessor
Fundamentals
Week 1
Mount Druitt College of TAFE
Dept. Electrical Engineering
2008
Computers: where did they come
from?
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Abacus: automated counting machine, lines drawn in sand with pebbles
representing numbers, storage mechanism (memory), 2400 BC, Babylon
First mechanical adding machine: Pascal 1642 Series of numbers entered
and the wheels turned in the proper sequence gave a cumulative sum.
Mechanical answer to arithmetic problems. Principle still in use today as
water meters and odometers.
Difference engine: steam powered, designed with repeated calculations in
mind, never built. Had a fixed instruction program. Babbage, 1822
Analytical engine: storage of numbers (memory), included conditional
operators (if statements) and instructions on punched cards (stored
program). Babbage, 1833.
Computers: where did they come
from? (2)
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Hollerith and Tabulating Machine: used punched cards,
eventually company became IBM. 1890.
Binary numbers system – Zuse 1941. Allowed easy reading of
cards, hole or no hole, 1 or 0. Complex calculations now
possible to represent.
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Binary important to future design of computers using 2 state devices
such as switches, card readers, vacuum tubes, semi conductors.
Harvard Mark-1 – IBM, 1930. First large automatic
calculating machine. Used punched cards, 23 decimal place
numbers, could handle logs and trig function using in built
programs. Used rotating wheels and relays
ENIAC machine: Electrical Numerical Integrator and
Computer - 1946, 18000 tubes, 167 square metres, first
successful high speed digital computer
The Von Neumann Machine
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Data same as program
Early computers stored program in the control
unit which had to be either rewired or changed
if the program needed changing.
If program is stored in same place as data then
it can be changed similarly.
Stored program concept
Machine language applies this concept
First machine to use it was in 1947
Computers: where did they come
from? (3)
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EDVAC: Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer, used Von Neumann’s concept
Technology advances
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Transistor (1947): no more vacuum tubes
Integrated circuit (1958): many transistors in one
package
Both of the above allowed computers to
become smaller
First microprocessor (1971): included ALU,
control units, processed 4 bits of data
Computers now available to general public
BASIC
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First machine language: BASIC (1964): Kemeny
& Kurtz.
Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction
Code
Gates & Allen used it to design an instruction
set and compiler for the Altair machine. They
sold it and Microsoft was born
Languages
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FORTRAN: 1950s
COBOL: 1960
PASCAL: late 1960s
C: 1971
PC Explosion
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1977: Apple
1981: PC
1984: 286
1983: lisa, first computer with mouse and
graphical interface
1984: Macintosh
1980s: Commodore
μProcessors