Raphel Banda PCF 113 DNEP 3.

TRUST ACADEMY
IN COLLABORATION WITH
MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

DIPLOMA IN NETWORKING AND PC ENGINEERING

Student Name RAPHEL BANDA

Student Number PCF113

Lecturer ENG. F. MPOMBWA

Assignment 2 microprocessors

Level DNEP 3.2

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Assignment 2

1a. Explain what is Computer Architecture? (6)

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It is a specification describing how hardware and software technologies interact to create a computer
platform or system. Computer architecture consists of three main categories which are system design,
instruction set architecture and microarchitecture.

i. Mention important steps for computer design? (4)

A CPU architecture is defined by the set of machine language which can be defined as a

 Set of registers and their functions ( capabilities )

 Sequence of micro-operations performed on the data stored in registers
 Control signals that initiate the sequence

ii. Mention what are the basic components of a Microprocessor? (4)

Address lines to refer to the address of a block

Data lines for data transfer

IC chips for processing data

iii. Mention what are different types of interrupts in a microprocessor system?

Explain? (6)
There are three types of interrupts that can cause a break:
 External Interrupts -From external input/output devices such types of interrupt comes.
 Internal Interrupts -These types of interrupts are caused due to any exception caused by the
program itself. For example, division by zero or an invalid opcode, etc.
 Software Interrupts -Only during the execution of an instruction such type of interruption can
occur.  The primary purpose of such interrupts is to switch from user mode to supervisor mode.

2a. Mention what are the common components of a microprocessor are? (5)

I/O Units

Control Unit

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

Registers

Cache

i. Explain what is direct mapping? (5)

In direct mapping, the RAM is used to store data and some of the data is stored in the Cache. The
address space is divided into two parts index field and tag field. The tag field is used to store the tag
field whereas the rest is stored in the main memory.

ii. Explain if the internal bus connects only register within the CPU, how would
you get data to and from memory? (5)
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The AR or Address Register is used to select a memory address, and the Data Register is used
to send and receive the data. Both these register are connected to the internal BUS, and the
Data Register acts as a bridge between the memory data BUS and internal BUS.
iii. Explain what is WAIT state? (5)

A WAIT state plays a key role in preventing CPU speed incompatibilities. Many times the processor is at
ready state to accept data from a device or location, but there might be no input available. In such case
there will be wastage of CPU time, and the system gets into WAIT state.

3a. Explain how you can deal with WAIT state? (5)

The one way to deal with WAIT state is increasing the microprocessor clock period by reducing the clock
frequency. The second way is by using special control input READY. It allows the memory to set its own
memory cycle time.

i. Give an explanation to the microcontroller and microcomputer? (5)

Microcontroller is a compact integrated circuit designed to govern a specific operation in an embedded

system. A typical microcontroller includes a processor, memory and input/output (I/O) peripherals on a
single chip.

A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer with a microprocessor as its central

processing unit.

ii. Explain the signals HOLD, READY and SID. (5)

HOLD indicates that a peripheral such as DMA controller is requesting the use of address
bus, data bus and control bus. READY is used to delay the microprocessor read or write
cycles until a slow responding peripheral is ready to send or accept data. SID is used to
accept serial data bit by bit

iii. How many interrupts does 8085 have mention them (5)

The 8085 microprocessor has five interrupt inputs. They are TRAP, RST 7.5, RST 6.5, RST 5.5, and INTR.

4a. How many machine cycles does 8085 have? Mention them. (7)

The 8085 have seven machine cycles. They are

- Opcode fetch
- Memory read
- Memory write
- I/O read
- I/O write
- Interrupt acknowledge
- Bus idle

b. Give the difference between Harvard Architecture and von Neumann Architecture? (10)
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In Harvard architecture, the CPU is connected with both the data memory (RAM) and program memory
(ROM), separately, it requires more hardware since it will be requiring separate data and address bus for
each memory.

In Von-Neumann architecture, there is no separate data and program memory. Instead, a single memory
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connection is given to the CPU, this requires less hardware since only a common memory
needs to be reached.

c. Why 8051 is called an 8-bit microcontroller? (3)

8051 is an 8-bit microcontroller which means that most available operations are limited to 8 bits.

5a. List the 7 features of the 8051 microcontrollers? (7)

4kb bytes on chip program memory(rom)
128 bytes on chip data memory
four register banks
128 user defined software flags
three internal and two external interrupts
16 bit program counter and data pointer
16 bit unidirectional address bus

b. What are the difference between bit addressable and byte address in

microcontroller 8051? (3)

In Byte addressable we can only access the data by byte by byte i.e. whole bunch of 8 bits, but in bit
addressable addresses we can access or manipulate each bit individually.

c. Why 8051 is called 8-bit microcontroller? (4)

Intel 8051 is an 8-bit microcontroller which means that most available operations are limited to 8 bits.

d. State the width of data bus? (2)

It comprise of 8 bits data bus

e. Outline the width of address bus? (2)

Consists of 16-bit address bus.

END

94 marks due 1 October 2020.