03-07-2017, 10:16 AM
A microprocessor is an electronic component that is used by a computer to do its job. It is a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit chip that contains millions of very small components, including transistors, resistors and diodes that work together. Microprocessors help you do everything from writing to searching the Web. Everything a computer does is described by many precise instructions and the microprocessors perform these instructions at incredible speed, many millions of times per second.
Microprocessors were invented in the 1970s for use in embedded systems. Most are still used that way, in things such as mobile phones, cars, military weapons and appliances. Some microprocessors are microcontrollers, so small and inexpensive that they are used to control very simple products like flashlights and greeting cards that reproduce music when they are opened. Some particularly powerful microprocessors are used in personal computers.
Like other central processing units, microprocessors use three steps commonly called Fetch, Decode and Execute. In the Fetch step, an instruction is copied from the computer memory to the microprocessor. In the decoding step, the microprocessor checks the operation of the instruction. In the Run step, this operation is performed. The operations can be very simple, like adding two numbers or moving some data from one place to another, or complicated, like copying a series of letters and numbers (called string) from a place in the computer's memory to a different place.