History
The very first microprocessors were finished in the 1970s and were used for calculators. The 4-bit microprocessor was followed closely by the 8-bit microprocessor in 1972, just one year later and the first 16-bit microprocessor came out, and in 1979 the 32-bit microprocessors emerged. 64-bit microprocessors have been in the market since early 1990 but in the early 2000s they started getting targeted at the computer market.
Properties of the Microprocessor
There are three basic characteristics of the microprocessor, The Instruction set: This is the set of instructions that a microprocessor can execute The bandwidth: The number of bits that are processed in a single instruction The clock speed: The clock speed determines how many intructions per second the processor can execute. This is given in megahertz. (MHz)
The Microprocessor’s Language
There are different assembly languages but they all have a few things in common, they all map directly to the CPU intruction sets. The CPU instruction set is binary code or instructions that the CPU will understand. The CPU changes he size and amount of the instructions. Binary is hard to remember so each instruction has a little name like MOV for moving instructions.
What a Microprocessor is made of
The microprocessor is a circuit built on a small piece of silicon. Silicon is used because it can either onduct or insulate electric currents. It also has millions of transistors that are interconnected with wires made of aluminum or copper. They are put through various chemicals, gases and light during the 300 steps it takes to make a microprocessor.
URLs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor
http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventions/a/microprocer
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Microprocessor_Design/Assembly_Language
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/backgrnd/making_a_chip.htm
