Technology

The current trends in technological development in any field have shifted towards improvement in efficiency and size reduction. I take the role played by microprocessors as one of the best examples of this fascinating trend.  I have a very high regard for microprocessors in the way they are able to carry their functions fast and high level of preciseness. They have the capacity to work and multitask like a brain of a person in the way they process the information given to them. The most fascinating thin is their continued reduction in size to a small chip with an added degree of effectiveness. This subject holds a lot of significance today and in the future as microprocessors continues to gain more and more applicability in more than one field. In this study, I intend to explore the history behind the current age of microprocessors, the applicability and the future trends (Holly, 2003). My interest is based on the conviction that, we are becoming more and more dependent on technology. Microprocessors provide a good channel that can allow us to combine our ingenuity with technology. This is possible through the application of programs into these microprocessors which can later be executed with high level of flexibility at a higher speed and precision.

History of microprocessors
The development of a microprocessor came into being out of desire to combine major functions of data processing into a single central processing unit. This became possible after evolution of integrated circuits commonly referred to as microchips in 1970s. During this period, the initial microprocessor was invented by Intel group and was called Intel 4004 which was introduced in the market in 1971.

Earlier on, computers comprised of collection of chips which were connected together to perform a collective function (Fransman, 1995). The evolution of 4004 brought about the ability to perform all functions from a single chip. This also brought about the ability to have portable processors. This was only a 4-bit portable electronic calculator. However, in 1974, Intel introduced the first 8-bit microprocessor Intel 8080 with a capacity of being used as a home computer with one chip. The real impact of personal computers in the market occurred in 1982 after Intel 8088 micro chip was incorporated in the IBM Personal Computer. The development of this technology has continued with tome which saw the making of 80286, 80386 and 80486. This later gave way to Pentium microprocessors. The development of Pentium has been latest development which has seen the making of Pentium I, II, III and the latest Pentium IV microprocessors (Parhami, 2005). All of these microprocessors are based on improvements on the original technology employed by Intel in manufacture of 8088 microprocessor. However, Pentium IV has the capacity of running similar functions carried out by 8088 at a speed of five thousands times faster. The greatest advantage of these processors is that they have come to do work that could have been done by thousands of people. They have also eased in collection, synthesizing, storage and retrieval of information.

Composition of a microprocessor
A micro processor houses the central processing unit. A basic microprocessor consists of five major parts which includes arithmetic and logic unit, control unit, register array, system bus and the memory. The control unit (CU) controls the transfer of all instructions in and out of the processor. Control unit consists of a decoder, control logic circuit and a timer which ensures that every instruction given is carried out in the right tome. It also carries out the control operations of the arithmetic and logic unit. It also determines the cycle of execution of the instructions given into it. The arithmetic and logic unit carries out functions relating to addition, multiplication, subtraction and division of numbers. This happens after a message has been sent from control to carry out these functions (Dedrick, Kraemer, 1998).  The register array contains a small level of internal memory which is used to conduct fast storage and recovery of information or any other instructs ions passed into the processor. The most common registers contained in the microprocessors includes, instruction register, program counter register, accumulator register, stack pointer register and memory address register.

The system bus consists of a control bus, address bus and data bus. This functions as the transfer of information from the processor to other major components. The address bus sends instructions to the memory while the data bus can send or receive data f5rom the memory. This includes the memory, the processor itself and other computer peripherals like the printer, scanner, mouse and the monitor. There is also the read and write lines which sends information to the memory concerning the location where the information is to be stored or retrieved.

The stack array functions as a temporary storage room for storage of data. The microprocessor may push some of the data passed into it into these temporary storage units as it continues to process the other. Information is placed into different stacks depending on their order of execution.

Working of a microprocessor
Microprocessor consists of all functions of a central processing unit and controls all the functions of a computer once it has been turned on. Some of the typical operations of a microprocessor include carrying out additional, subtraction, and even comparison of numbers. This function is enabled by the instruction given to it by the user. All the buses that transfer information are connected to either read -only memory (ROM) or random access memory (RAM) and mostly both. ROM chip consists of permanent set off programmed bytes (Sichel, 1997). The address bus informs the ROM chi op which information to acquire and put it on the bus. Upon the change of state in read line, the ROM Chip places the required data on the data bus for transfer to the desired location. On the other hand, the RAM consists of bytes of information upon which the microprocessor can write or read depending on the kind of bus signalled onto it. However, most of the present day RAMs tend to lose all information contains on then once the power of a microprocessor is turned off. This is the reason why all computers requires a RAM so as to store the information once it has been processed by the through the RAM. It is very difficult to have a computer that has no ROM. In most of the personal computers ROM is known as the basic input and output system (BIOS). On switching on a computer, the operation of a microprocessor is initiated (Holly, 2003). It starts its operation on the operations or programs present in the BIOS. The instructions guides the microprocessor to carry out basic operations on the hardware such as collecting the programs contained in the boot sector. Thereafter, the BIOS stores the information collected to the RAM. As more and more instructions are fed into the BIOS, the program contained in the boot sector will continue to instruct the microprocessor which will execute the task in the required order. Concisely, a microprocessor continues to load and carry out other tasks in the operating system depending   on the instructions given.

Microprocessors aquires instructions and executed them on bit patterns. The processor recognises each instruction as a different from the preceding instruction and loads it into the register. To execute these instructions, a pre- programmed instruction must exist within the memory of the microprocessor. The processor understands its instructions in digits. From the 8-bit processors invented in 1970s the designs have improved to 12, 16, 32 and even 64 bit microprocessors. The latest 64-bit microprocessors entered in the PC market in the as per from year 2000.

Current and future trends
There has been a great deal of approach in improving the performance of the microprocessors with an aim of turning making g them be in a position to handle multiprocessors. To achieve this, most of the microprocessor manufacturers have sought for ways of creating multi-core processors. These processors contains a single chip which has a multiple processors fitted in it. They are designed in a way that enables them utilize the operating systems of each of every constituent processor. However, there are new designs of processors which have the potential of taking advantage of multiple programs of processors. Due to the closeness of the cores of these processors, they have the capacity to perform at a faster clock rates compared to other multiprocessors (Dedrick, Kraemer, 1998). This has seen a tremendous improvement in the performance of the modern and upcoming microprocessors.

For instance, in 2005, the first PC with a multiple-core microprocessor was introduced in the market. In the near future, it will be possible to have personal computers wit six to eight cores in their processing units. This will create a positive revolution in the utility of microprocessors in many fields.
Microprocessors have gained utility in many fields in domestic arena such as remote controls for television sets, portable games and other sophisticated uses. In the scientific field micro chips have found uses in research work where these chips have been installed in the satellites which help to collect and disseminate in formation collected by them in a faster rate. In addition, these microprocessors are now applied by the military personnel to help in operation of the unmanned aircraft vehicles. In the telecommunication industry, the improvement that has occurred in this industry has helped to open ways of inclusion of microprocessors in phones. Mobile phones have become a personal utility which can carry out various functions other than communication (Parhami, 2005). This has been enabled by the application of micro chip technology and development of small phones which can carry out specific programs during their manufacturing process.

Summary
Microprocessors are the heart of each and every new development. Since the invention of microprocessors, this technology has grown tremendously for the last few years. A microprocessor performs three main functions of carrying out arithmetic and logic unit, moving data from one memory stack to the other and making individual decisions to stop a certain function and shift to another based on the instructions given to it by the user.  I stand to be supported if I say that microprocessor technology has not only eased the rate which we carry out our complex duties but has opened our minds to a complete new direction of technological thought.