Specifications

Chapter 1 - Introduction to Microprocessors
components for receiving and sending data must be added to it. In short that means that
microprocessor is the very heart of the computer. On the other hand, microcontroller is
designed to be all of that in one. No other external components are needed for its application
because all necessary peripherals are already built into it. Thus, we save the time and space
needed to construct devices.
1.1 Memory unit
Memory is part of the microcontroller whose function is to store data.
The easiest way to explain it is to describe it as one big closet with lots of drawers. If we
suppose that we marked the drawers in such a way that they can not be confused, any of their
contents will then be easily accessible. It is enough to know the designation of the drawer and
so its contents will be known to us for sure.
Memory components are exactly like that. For a certain input we get the contents of a certain
addressed memory location and that's all. Two new concepts are brought to us: addressing and
memory location. Memory consists of all memory locations, and addressing is nothing but
selecting one of them. This means that we need to select the desired memory location on one
hand, and on the other hand we need to wait for the contents of that location. Beside reading
from a memory location, memory must also provide for writing onto it. This is done by
supplying an additional line called control line. We will designate this line as R/W (read/write).
Control line is used in the following way: if r/w=1, reading is done, and if opposite is true then
writing is done on the memory location. Memory is the first element, and we need a few
operation of our microcontroller .
1.2 Central Processing Unit
Let add 3 more memory locations to a specific block that will have a built in capability to
multiply, divide, subtract, and move its contents from one memory location onto another. The
part we just added in is called "central processing unit" (CPU). Its memory locations are called
registers.
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