Microprocessor FundamentalsWeek 1

Mount Druitt College of TAFE

Dept. Electrical Engineering

2008

Assessment

Theory Test 1: 25%Theory Test 2: 45%Practical Test 1: 15%Practical Test 2: 15%

How to pass the subject – your responsibility Access the web site at

http://wsiee.wikispaces.com/ every couple of days for: Weekly notes – powerpoint slides in *.ppt and *.pdf format: Print the pdf versions and bring to class BEFORE each

class. Other material such as revision questions for tests and

related material It can all be found on a page dedicated to each week of the

subject. You should print this page also. Store all hard copies in a folder and stay organised! You will need a Flash disk to store your practical material

Web site – home page

Web site – class notes index

Web site – Microcontrollers index

A bit of history

How do we understand where we are now without understanding where we have been?

Computers: where did they come from?

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)

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.

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

Data same as programEarly 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 conceptMachine language applies this conceptFirst machine to use it was in 1947

Computers: where did they come from? (3)

EDVAC: Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, used Von Neumann’s concept

Technology advances

Transistor (1947): no more vacuum tubesIntegrated circuit (1958): many transistors

in one packageBoth of the above allowed computers to

become smallerFirst microprocessor (1971): included ALU,

control units, processed 4 bits of dataComputers now available to general public

BASIC

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

FORTRAN: 1950sCOBOL: 1960PASCAL: late 1960sC: 1971

PC Explosion

1977: Apple1981: PC1984: 2861983: lisa, first computer with mouse and

graphical interface1984: Macintosh1980s: Commodore

μProcessors

uP Block Diagram – example read and write operations

Please now refer to section 1 workbook notes.