The central processing unit is a very large-scale integrated circuit. It is the computing core and control core of a computer. Its function is mainly to explain computer instructions and process data in computer software. It mainly consists of an arithmetic unit and a cache and a bus that implements the data, control, and state of the connection between them. It is combined with internal memory and input/output devices as the three core components of an electronic computer.
At present, the high-end products of embedded processors are: Advanced RISC Machines ARM, Silicon Graphics MIPS, IBM and Motorola Power PC, Intel X86 and i960 chips, AMD's Am386EM, Hitachi SH RISC chip; Pocket PC The processor has six types of processors: Intel's PXA series processor, MIPS processor, StrongARM series processor, Hitachi SH3 processor, Motorola Dragon Ball series processor and Texas Instruments OMAP series processor.
The difference between a microprocessor and a microcontroller
The difference between a microprocessor and a microcontroller is mainly concentrated in three aspects: hardware structure, application domain, and instruction set features:
First, the hardware structure. The microprocessor is a single-chip CPU, and the microcontroller integrates the CPU and Other circuits in an integrated circuit chip to form a complete microcomputer system. In addition to the CPU, the microcontroller also includes RAM, ROM, a serial interface, a parallel interface, timers and interrupt scheduling circuitry. Although the capacity of the on-chip RAM is smaller than that of a conventional microcomputer system, this does not limit the use of the microcontroller. As you will see later, microcontrollers are used in a wide range of applications. Among them, an important feature of the microcontroller is the built-in interrupt system. As a control-oriented device, microcontrollers often respond to external stimuli in real time.
Second, the field of application. Microprocessors are often used as CPUs in microcomputer systems, and their design is aimed at such applications, which is the advantage of microprocessors. However, microcontrollers are often used for control-oriented applications, and system design pursues miniaturization, minimizing component count. In the past, these applications typically required tens or even hundreds of digital integrated circuits. The use of a microcontroller can reduce the number of components used, and a single microcontroller, a small number of external components, and a control program stored in the ROM can achieve the same function. Microcontrollers are suitable for applications where input/output devices are controlled with very few components, while microprocessors are suitable for use in computer systems for information processing.
Third, the instruction set features. The instruction set for microcontrollers and microprocessors varies from application to application. The microprocessor's instruction set enhances processing power, giving it a powerful addressing mode and instructions for manipulating large-scale data. Microprocessor instructions can operate on nibbles, bytes, words, or even double words. By using address pointers and address offsets, the microprocessor provides an addressing mode that can access large amounts of data. The auto increment and decrement modes make it very easy to access data in bytes, words or double words. In addition, the microprocessor has other features, such as the inability to use privileged instructions in the user program.
The microcontroller's instruction set is suitable for input/output control. Many input/output interfaces are single/bit. For example, an electromagnet controls the switch of the motor, and the electromagnet is controlled by a 1-bit output port. The microcontroller has instructions for setting and clearing units, and can perform other bit-oriented operations, such as logical AND, or XOR operations on "bits", jumps based on flag bits, and so on. Few microprocessors have these powerful bit manipulation capabilities because designers only consider operating data in bytes or larger when designing a microprocessor.
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