A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit. The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using BCD arithmetics on four bit words. Other embedded uses of four and eight bit microprocessors, such as terminals, printers, various kinds of automation etc, followed rather quickly. Affordable eight bit microprocessors with sixteen bit addressing also led to the first general purpose microcomputers in the mid 1970s.
A microprocessor also known as central processing unit is a complete computation engine that is fabricated on a single chip. The first microprocessor was the Intel 4004, introduced in 1971. The 4004 was not very powerful all it could do was add and subtract, and it could only do that four bits at a time. But it was amazing that everything was on one chip.Prior to the 4004, engineers built computers either from collections of chips or from discrete components. If you have ever wondered what the microprocessor in your computer is doing, or if you have ever wondered about the differences between types of microprocessors, then read on. In this article, you will learn how fairly simple digital logic techniques allow a computer to do its job, whether its playing a game or spell checking a document
