Microcontrollers and Introduction

to Real-Time Programming

Prof. Yusuf Leblebici

Microelectronic Systems Laboratory (LSM)

yusuf.leblebici@epfl.ch

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 Organization
 Introduction

 Goals of the Course

 Historical Perspective - Microprocessors
• Pre-history
• Last 30 years
• Today and tomorrow
 A Few Words on Embedded Systems
 The Technology Aspect: Moore’s Law

 ITRS Predictions

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 Goals and Objectives
In this course, you will:
 Learn how the hardware (HW) and software (SW)
components of a microprocessor-based system
work together to implement digital systems.

 Learn both HW and SW aspects of integrating

digital devices (memory, I/O interfaces, etc.) into
microprocessor / microcontroller systems.

 Get practical hands-on experience in system

design and assembly language programming.

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 Goals and Objectives
Remember: There is always more than one way of
looking at things !

Software Design
Hardware Design
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 Goals and Objectives

In the classroom lectures, you will learn more about the

hardware architecture aspects of microprocessors and
microcontrollers, their internal building blocks, operation
principles, interfacing with other digital systems etc…

In the laboratory sessions, you will learn more about the

machine code and assembly language programming of
microprocessors / microcontrollers, and implementation
of digital systems using these devices.

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 Goals and Objectives

The classroom lectures will be in English.

The laboratory sessions and exercises will be in French.

There will be regular handouts for reading:

Book chapters
Lecture slides
Laboratory manuals
etc…

Please follow the lectures regularly – it’s important !

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 Building Blocks of Digital Systems

INPUT-OUTPUT MEM ORY

CONTROL

DATAPATH

Main question: How to implement these functions ?

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 Computer Pre-history
Charles Babbage
•

Analytical Engine
• Started in 1834
• Never finished
•

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 Computer History
Eckert and Mauchly

• 1st working electronic

computer (1946)
• 18,000 Vacuum tubes
• 1,800 instructions/sec
• 3,000 ft3

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 Computer History
• Maurice Wilkes

1st store program computer

650 instructions/sec
EDSAC 1 (1949) 1,400 ft3
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/UoCCL/misc/EDSAC99/

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 1962 - 1972

http://hrst.mit.edu/hrs/apollo/public/index.htm

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12
 Apollo
Guidance
Computer

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 Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC)

Word length: 16 bits (15 bits data + parity bit)

First computer using integrated circuits (ICs)

Magnetic core memory

Fixed memory (ROM): 36,864 words
Erasable memory (RAM): 2,048 words

Number of instructions: 34
Cycle time: 11.7 µ sec Clock frequency: 85 kHz (!)
Number of logic gates: 5,600 (2,800 packages)
Weight: 30 kg
Power consumption: 70 W

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 Intel 4004 Microprocessor
• Introduced in 1970
– First microprocessor
– 4 bit architecture !
• 2,250 transistors
• 12 mm2
• Clock: 108 kHz

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 Intel 8085 Microprocessor
• Introduced in 1974
• 8-bit architecture
• Still used in some
microcontroller
applications !

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 Intel 8086 Microprocessor
• Introduced in 1979
• 29,000 transistors
• 33 mm2
• Clock: 5 MHz
• 16 bit architecture

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 Intel 386 Microprocessor
• Introduced in 1985
• 275,000 transistors
• 43 mm2
• Clock: 16 MHz
• 32 bit architecture

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 Intel 486 Microprocessor
• Introduced in 1989
• 1,200,000 transistors
• 81 mm2
• Clock: 25 MHz
• 32 bit architecture

– 1st pipelined
implementation of IA32

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 Intel Pentium Microprocessor
• Introduced in 1993
• 3,100,000 transistors
• 296 mm2
• Clock: 60 MHz
• 32 bit architecture

– 1st superscalar
implementation of IA32

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 Pentium Processor Details

• State
– Registers
– Memory
REG

• Control ROM

• Combinational
logic
 Intel Pentium III
• Introduced in 1999
• 9,500,000 transistors
• 125 mm2
• Clock: 450 MHz
• 32 bit architecture

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 DEC Alpha 21264
• Introduced in 1998
• 15,200,000 transistors
• 302 mm2
• Clock: 700 MHz
• 64 bit architecture
• Still the highest performance
commercial microprocessor:

SPEC-95fp

Alpha 21264: 66
Pentium III Xeon: 30.4

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 Moore’s Law

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 Don’t think that the highest-performance
processors are always found in a computer !!

• Sony Playstation II
• Chip designed by Toshiba
• Introduced in 1998
• 10,500,000 transistors
• 238 mm2
• Clock: 300 MHz
• 128 bit architecture
• 10 floating-point multiplier
accumulators
• MPEG-2 decoder
• Multimedia processor

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 Embedded Systems
About four (!) percent of the world’s microprocessors are used in
computers. Source: Embedded Systems Programming, May 1999

embedded
microprocessors
Only 4% of the
Motorola, 8-bit 1 billion total number
ARM,
MIPS, 8-bit 1 billion
i960,
x86, 16-bit 1 billion
… 125 million PCs
32-bit 250 million Intel, AMD
Average car has about 15 microprocessors.
Mercedes S-class: 63 microprocessors !!

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 New Direction: System-on-Chip (SoC)

Memory
ASIC Core

Communication
Analog Embedded
Functions Processor
Core

Sensor
Interface

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 Building Blocks of Digital Systems

INPUT-OUTPUT MEM ORY

CONTROL

DATAPATH

CPU

Main question: How to implement these functions ?

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 Bus and CPU
Bus: A shared group of wires used for communicating
signals among devices
• address bus: the device and the location within the
device that is being accessed
• data bus: the data value being communicated
• control bus: describes the action on the address and data
buses

CPU: Core of the processor, where instructions are executed

• High-level language: a = b + c
• Assembly language: add r1 r2 r3
• Machine language: 0001001010111010101

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 Memory and I/O
Memory: Where instructions (programs) and data are stored
• Organized in arrays of locations (addresses), each storing
one byte (8 bits) in general
• A read operation to a particular location always returns the
last value stored in that location

I/O devices: Enable system to interact with the world

• Device interface (a.k.a. controller or adapter) hardware
connects actual device to bus
• The CPU views the I/O device registers just like
memory that can be accessed over the bus. However,
I/O registers are connected to external wires, device
control logic, etc.
• Reads may not return last value written
• Writes may have side effects

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 Moore’s Law

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32
 ITRS - International Technology Roadmap for
Semiconductors
YEAR 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014

TECHNOLOGY 130 nm 100 nm 70 nm 50 nm 35 nm

2 2 2 2 2
CHIP SIZE 400 mm 600 mm 750 mm 800 mm 900 mm

NUMBER OF
TRANSISTORS 400 M 1 Billion 3 Billion 6 Billion 16 Billion
(LOGIC)

DRAM
2 Gbits 10 Gbits 25 Gbits 70 Gbits 200 Gbits
CAPACITY

MAXIMUM 1.6 GHz 2.0 GHz 2.5 GHz 3.0 GHz 3.5 GHz
CLOCK
FREQUENCY

MINIMUM 1.5 V 1.2 V 0.9 V 0.6 V 0.6 V

SUPPLY
VOLTAGE

MAXIMUM 130 W 160 W 170 W 175 W 180 W

POWER
DISSIPATION

MAXIMUM
NUMBER OF 2500 4000 4500 5500 6000
I/O PINS

Predictions of the worldwide semiconductor / IC industry

about its own future prospects...

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 Shrinking Device Dimensions

YEAR 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014

TECHNOLOGY 130 nm 100 nm 70 nm 50 nm 35 nm
2 2 2 2 2
CHIP SIZE 400 mm 600 mm 750 mm 800 mm 900 mm

NUMBER OF
TRANSISTORS 400 M 1 Billion 3 Billion 6 Billion 16 Billion
(LOGIC)

DRAM
2 Gbits 10 Gbits 25 Gbits 70 Gbits 200 Gbits
CAPACITY

MAXIMUM 1.6 GHz 2.0 GHz 2.5 GHz 3.0 GHz 3.5 GHz
CLOCK
FREQUENCY

MINIMUM 1.5 V 1.2 V 0.9 V 0.6 V 0.6 V

SUPPLY
VOLTAGE

MAXIMUM 130 W 160 W 170 W 175 W 180 W

POWER
DISSIPATION

MAXIMUM
2500 4000 4500 5500 6000
NUMBER OF
I/O PINS

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 Increasing Function Density

YEAR 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014

TECHNOLOGY 130 nm 100 nm 70 nm 50 nm 35 nm

2 2 2 2 2
CHIP SIZE 400 mm 600 mm 750 mm 800 mm 900 mm

NUMBER OF
TRANSISTORS 400 M 1 Billion 3 Billion 6 Billion 16 Billion
(LOGIC)

DRAM
CAPACITY 2 Gbits 10 Gbits 25 Gbits 70 Gbits 200 Gbits

MAXIMUM 1.6 GHz 2.0 GHz 2.5 GHz 3.0 GHz 3.5 GHz
CLOCK
FREQUENCY

MINIMUM 1.5 V 1.2 V 0.9 V 0.6 V 0.6 V

SUPPLY
VOLTAGE

MAXIMUM 130 W 160 W 170 W 175 W 180 W

POWER
DISSIPATION

MAXIMUM
2500 4000 4500 5500 6000
NUMBER OF
I/O PINS

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 Increasing Clock Frequency

YEAR 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014

TECHNOLOGY 130 nm 100 nm 70 nm 50 nm 35 nm

2 2 2 2 2
CHIP SIZE 400 mm 600 mm 750 mm 800 mm 900 mm

NUMBER OF
TRANSISTORS 400 M 1 Billion 3 Billion 6 Billion 16 Billion
(LOGIC)

DRAM
2 Gbits 10 Gbits 25 Gbits 70 Gbits 200 Gbits
CAPACITY

MAXIMUM
CLOCK 1.6 GHz 2.0 GHz 2.5 GHz 3.0 GHz 3.5 GHz
FREQUENCY

MINIMUM 1.5 V 1.2 V 0.9 V 0.6 V 0.6 V

SUPPLY
VOLTAGE

MAXIMUM 130 W 160 W 170 W 175 W 180 W

POWER
DISSIPATION

MAXIMUM
2500 4000 4500 5500 6000
NUMBER OF
I/O PINS

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 Decreasing Supply Voltage

YEAR 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014

TECHNOLOGY 130 nm 100 nm 70 nm 50 nm 35 nm

2 2 2 2 2
CHIP SIZE 400 mm 600 mm 750 mm 800 mm 900 mm

NUMBER OF
TRANSISTORS 400 M 1 Billion 3 Billion 6 Billion 16 Billion
(LOGIC)

DRAM
2 Gbits 10 Gbits 25 Gbits 70 Gbits 200 Gbits
CAPACITY

MAXIMUM 1.6 GHz 2.0 GHz 2.5 GHz 3.0 GHz 3.5 GHz
CLOCK
FREQUENCY

MINIMUM
SUPPLY 1.5 V 1.2 V 0.9 V 0.6 V 0.6 V
VOLTAGE

MAXIMUM
POWER 130 W 160 W 170 W 175 W 180 W
DISSIPATION

MAXIMUM
2500 4000 4500 5500 6000
NUMBER OF
I/O PINS

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 Some Interesting WWW Links
• Great Microprocessors of the Past and Present
http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/jbayko/cpu.html
• CPU Info Center
http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/CIC/
• CPU Design HOW-TO
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/CPU-Design-HOWTO.html
• VLSI Microprocessors
http://www.microprocessor.sscc.ru/
• Molecular Expressions Chip Shots Gallery
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/chipshots/index.html

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