Microprocessors

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Term Paper Title	Microprocessors
# of Words	2565
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	10.26

Microprocessors

Microprocessors

     Inside of the mysterious box that perches ominously on your desk is one of
the marvels of the modern world. This marvel is also a total enigma to most of
the population. This enigma is, of course, the microprocessor. To an average
observer a microprocessor is simply a small piece of black plastic that is found
inside of almost everything.
     In How Microprocessors Work they are defined as a computer's central
processing unit, usually contained on a single integrated circuit (Wyant and
Hammerstrom, 193). In plain English this simply means that a microprocessor is
the brain of a computer and it is only on one chip. Winn L. Rosch compares them
to being an electronic equivalent of a knee-joint that when struck with the
proper digital stimulus will react in the exact same way each time (Rosch,37).
More practically a microprocessor is multitudinous transistors squeezed onto as
small a piece of silicon as possible to do math problems as fast as possible.
     Microprocessors are made of many smaller components which all work
together to make the chip work. A really good analogy for the way the inner
workings of a chip operate can be found in How Microprocessors Work. In their
book, Wyant and Hammerstrom describe a microprocessor as a factory and all of
the inner workings of the chip as the various parts of a factory (Wyant and
Hammerstrom, 71-103). Basically a microprocessor can be seen as a factory
because like a factory it is sent something and is told what to do with it. The
microprocessor factory processes information. This most basic unit of this
information is the bit. A bit is simply on or off. It is either a one or a zero.
Bits are put into 8 bit groups called bytes. The number 8 is used because it is
offers enough combinations to encode our entire language (2^8=256). If only 4
bits are used only (2^4=16) combinations would be possible. This is enough to
encode 9 digits and some operations. (The first microprocessors powered
calculators) A half byte is called a nibble and consists of 4 bits. In the world
of computer graphics the combination of bits is easier seen. In computer
graphics bits are used to make color combinations, thus with more bits more
colors are possible. Eight bit graphics will display 256 colors, 16 bit will
display 65,536, and 24 bit graphics will display 16.7 million colors. The bus
unit is described as the shipping dock because it controls data transfers, and
functions between the individual pieces of...

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