Microprocessor Theory and Applications with 68000/68020 and Pentium

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INTRODUCTION TO MICROPROCESSORS

Digital systems are designed to store, process, and communicate information in digital form. They are found in a wide range of applications, including process control, communication systems, digital instruments, and consumer products. A digital computer, more commonly called simply a computer, is an example of a typical digital system.

A computer manipulates information in digital or more precisely, binary form. A binary number has only two discrete values: zero or one. Each discrete value is represented by the OFF and ON status of an electronic switch called a transistor. All computers understand only binary numbers. Any decimal number (base 10, with ten digits from 0 to 9) can be represented by a binary number (base 2, with digits 0 and 1).

The basic blocks of a computer are the central processing unit (CPU), the memory, and the input/output (I/O). The CPU of a computer is basically the same as the brain of a human being; so computer memory is conceptually similar to human memory. A question asked of a human being is analogous to entering a program into a computer using an input device such as a keyboard, and a person answering a question is similar in concept to outputting the program result to a computer output device such as a printer. The main difference is that human beings can think independently, whereas computers can only answer questions for which they are programmed. Computer hardware includes such components as memory, CPU, transistors, ...