Block diagram of an embedded microprocessor
A microprocessor chip is built by using semiconductor devices wherein thousands of transistors are integrated into a single chip for better performance. When we look at microprocessor’s history, the Pentium 4 processors have around 40-50 million transistors. The major microprocessor’s parts include:
ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit)
Memory unit
Control Unit
Registers
System Bus
Arithmetic Logic Unit
An ALU is also known as integer unit as it is used to perform logical operations like Not, OR AND, and math calculations like add, subtract, divide, multiply and comparisons like greater then, less than, etc.
Memory Unit
Cache memory is a small amount of memory located on the chip of a microprocessor. A microprocessor stores a copy of data and instructions in its cache memory while executing the program. Types of microprocessor memory include ROM and RAM.
Control Unit
Control Unit is the brain of a microprocessor as it manages complete operations. It performs the operations like managing input, output devices, storing data and fetching instructions.
Registers
Registers are small, fast memories built into the central processing unit (CPU) to speed up its operation. General purpose registers store arbitrary data and special purpose registers control the processor.
System Bus
System bus is a single wire used to attach different components to communicate with the internal and external parts of the microprocessor. The bus receives data and instructions from the main memory, and then sends them to instruction cache and data cache. Finally these are processed and the results are again sent to the main memory through this bus