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• 1. Microprocessor and Memory Basics
• What is a microprocessor and where are they used?
• Abstract system architecture
• System communication
  • Data bus, address bus, control bus
  • Reading data from memory
  • Writing data to memory
  • The Address Capacity of Memory
• Inside the microprocessor
  • The Arithmetic and Logic Unit
  • The Program Counter
  • Registers
• Inside memory
  • Memory Read and Write Operations
  • Calculating storage space
  • Address decoders
  • Tri-state buffers
  • Multiple memory chips
  • Other types of memory
  • Memory mapped input/output

Data bus, address bus, control bus

In isolation, the microprocessor, the memory and the input/output ports are interesting components, but they cannot do anything useful. In combination, they can form a complete system if they can communicate with each other. This communication is accomplished over bundles of signal wires (known as buses) that connect the parts of the system together.

• There are normally three types of bus in any processor system:
• An address bus: this determines the location in memory that the processor will read data from or write data to.
• A data bus: this contains the contents that have been read from the memory location or are to be written into the memory location.
• A control bus: this manages the information flow between components indicating whether the operation is a read or a write and ensuring that the operation happens at the right time.

Processor Schematic Architecture