Evaluation of Microprocessor

Evaluation of Microprocessor
Evaluation of Microprocessor

Evaluation of Microprocessor

The first microprocessor introduced in 1971 was a 4-bit microprocessor with 4m5KB memory and had a set of 45 instructions. In the past 5 decades microprocessor speed has doubled every two years, as predicted by Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder. Current microprocessors can access 64 GB memory. Depending on width of data microprocessors can process, they are of these categories−

  • 8-bit
  • 16-bit
  • 32-bit
  • 64-bit

Size of instruction set is another important consideration while categorizing microprocessors. Initially, microprocessors had very small instructions sets because complex hardware was expensive as well as difficult to build.

As technology developed to overcome these issues, more and more complex instructions were added to increase functionality of the microprocessor. However, soon it was realized that having large instruction sets was counterproductive as many instructions that were rarely used sat idle on precious memory space. So the old school of thought that supported smaller instruction sets gained popularity.

Let us learn more about the two types of microprocessors based on their instruction set.

RISC

RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computers. It has a small set of highly optimized instructions. Complex instruction are also implemented using simpler instructions, reducing the size of instruction set. The designing philosophy for RISC incorporates these salient points −

  • Number of instructions should be minimum.
  • Instructions should be of same length.
  • Simple addressing modes should be used
  • Reduce memory references to retrieve operands by adding registers

Some of the techniques used by RISC architecture include −

  • Pipelining− A sequence of instructions is fetched even if it means overlapping of instructions in fetching and execution.

  • Single cycle execution − Most of RISC instructions take one CPU cycle to execute.

Examples of RISC processors are Intel P6, Pentium4, AMD K6 and K7, etc.

CISC

CISC stands for Complex Instruction Set Computers. It supports hundreds of instructions. Computers supporting CISC can accomplish wide variety of tasks, making them ideal for personal computers. These are some characteristics of CISC architecture −

  • Larger set of instructions
  • Instructions are of variable length
  • Complex addressing modes
  • Instructions take more than one clock cycle
  • Work well with simpler compilers

Examples of CISC processors are Intel 386 & 486, Pentium, Pentium II and III, Motorola 68000, etc.

EPIC

EPIC stands for Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing. It is a computer architecture that is a cross between RISC and CISC, trying to provide the best of both. Its important features include −

  • Parallel instructions rather than fixed width
  • Mechanism to communication compiler’s execution plan to hardware
  • Programs must have sequential semantics

Some EPIC processors are Intel IA-64, Itanium, etc.

The different Abbreviations in Computer Science

Abbreviations
The different Abbreviations in Computer Science

Abbreviations

In this chapter, we will discuss the different abbreviations in Computer Science. The following table lists down those abbreviations −

Abbreviation Full-name
A/D Analog-to-Digital
ABC Atanasoff Berry Computer
ACM Association for Computing Machinery
AI Artificial Intelligence
ALGOL Algorithic Language
ALU Arithmetic Logic Unit
AMD Advanced Micro Devices
APRANET Advanced Research Project Agency Network
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
BASIC Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
BCD Binary Coded Decimal
BIOS Basic Inpute Output System
BIPS Billions of Instructions Per Second
BPI Bytes Per Inch
CAD Computer Aided Design
CAE Computer Aided Engineering
CAN Campus Area Network
CASE Computer Aided Software Engineering
CD Compact Disk
CDC Control Data Corporation
CD-R CD-Recordable
CD-ROM Compact Disk Read Only Memory
CD-RW CD Read/Write
CL Command Language
CLI Command Line Interface
COBOL Common Business Oriented
CODASYL Conference On Data Systems
CPU Central Processing Unit
CRT Cathode Ray Tube
D/A Digital-to-Analog
DAT Digital Audio Tape
DBMS Data Base Management System
DBS Demand Based Switching
DDL Data Definition Language
DDS Digital Data Storage
DEC Digital Equipment Corporation
DMA Direct Memory Access
DNA Digital Network Architecture
DPI Dots Per Inch
DRAM Dynamic RAM
DSN Distributed Systems Network
DTS Digital Theater System
DVD Digital Video/Versatile Disk
EBCDIC Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
EDSAC Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator
EDVAC Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Calculator
EFM Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation
ENIAC Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator
EPG Electronic Programming Guide
EPIC Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing
EPROM Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
FAT File Allocation Table
FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing
FEP Front End Processor
FLOPS Floating Point Operations Per Second
FM Frequency Modulation
FMS File Management System
FORTRAN FORmula TRANslation
FSK Frequency Shift Keying
FTP File Transfer Protocol
GB Giga Bytes
GFLOPS Giga FLOPS
GHz Giga Hertz
GNU Gnu Not Unix
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile communication
GUI Graphical User Interface
HP Hewlett Packard
HSS Hierarchical Storage System
HTML HyperText Markup Language
HTTP HyperText Transport Protocol
IBM International Business Machine
IC Integrated Circuit
IDN Integrated Digital Networks
IP Internet Protocol
IrDA Infrared Data Association
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
ISP Internet Service Provider
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group
JRE Java Runtime Engine
JSP Java Server Pages
KB Kilo Bytes
KHz Kilo Hertz
LAN Local Area Network
LCD Liquid Crystal Display
LED Light Emitting Diode
LPM Line Per Minute
LSI Large Scael Integration
MAN Metropolitan Area Network
MAR Memory Address Register
MB Mega Bytes
MBR Memory Buffer Register
MHz Mega Hertz
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface
MIPS Millions of Instructions Per Second
MNP Microcom Network Protocol
MPEG Moving Pictures Experts Group
MS-DOS MicroSoft Disk Operating System
MVT Multiprogramming with Variable Tasks
NIC Network Interface Card
NICNET National Informatics Center NETwork
NOS Network Operating System
OCR Optical Character Recognition
OMR Optical Mark Reader
OS Operating System
OSI Open System Interconnection
OSS Open Source Software
PAN Personal Area Network
PC Personal Computer
PDF Portable Document Format
PDL Program Design Language
PDP Program Data Processor
PIP Peripheral Interchange Program
PROM Programmable Read-Only Memory
QoS Quality of Service
RAM Random Access Memory
ROM Read Only Memory
SDLC Software Development Life Cycle
SEQUEL Structured English QUEry Language
SGML Syntax for Generalized Markup Language
SIMM Single In-line Memory Module
SNA Systems Network Architecture
SNOBOL StriNg Oriented and symBOlic Language
SQL Structured Query Language
SRAM Static RAM
SSI Small Scale Integration
TB Tera Bytes
TCP Transport Control Protocol
TDM Time Division Multiplexing
UDP User Datagram Protocol
ULSI Ultra Large Scale Integration
UPC Universal Product Code
URL Uniform Resource Locator
USB Universal Serial Bus
UTF Unicode Transformation Format
VAN Value Added Network
VCR Video Cassette Recorder
VDT Video Display Terminal
VGA Video Graphics Array
VOD Video-On-Demand
VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol
VSAT Very Small Aperture Terminal
WAN Wide Area Network
WAP Wireless Application Protocol
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WLL Wireless Local Loop
WORM Write Once Read Many
WWW World Wide Web
XHTML eXtensible HyperText Markup Language
XML eXtensible Markup Language
X.400 Electronic Mail Protocol
X.500 Directory Server Protocol

Merge & Wrap in M S Excel

 Merge Cells

MS Excel enables you to merge two or more cells. When you merge cells, you don’t combine the contents of the cells. Rather, you combine a group of cells into a single cell that occupies the same space.

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You can merge cells by various ways as mentioned below.

  • Choose Merge & Center control on the Ribbon, which is simpler. To merge cells, select the cells that you want to merge and then click the Merge & Center button.

Merge Cells
Merge Cells

  • Choose Alignment tab of the Format Cells dialogue box to merge the cells.

Merge Cells from Format cells
Merge Cells from Format cells

Additional Options

The Home » Alignment group » Merge & Center control contains a drop-down list with these additional options −

  • Merge Across − When a multi-row range is selected, this command creates multiple merged cells — one for each row.

  • Merge Cells − Merges the selected cells without applying the Center attribute.

  • Unmerge Cells − Unmerges the selected cells.

Wrap Text and Shrink to Fit

If the text is too wide to fit the column width but don’t want that text to spill over into adjacent cells, you can use either the Wrap Text option or the Shrink to Fit option to accommodate that text.

Wrap Text
Merge & Wrap in M S Excel

Borders and Shades in M S Excel

Apply Borders

MS Excel enables you to apply borders to the cells. For applying border, select the range of cells Right Click » Format cells » Border Tab » Select the Border Style.

Setting Border Style
Setting Border Style

Then you can apply border by Home Tab » Font group » Apply Borders.

Setting Border
Setting Border

Apply Shading

You can add shading to the cell from the Home tab » Font Group » Select the Color.

Shaded Cell
Shaded Cell

Apply Formatting in M S Excel

Formatting Cells

In MS Excel, you can apply formatting to the cell or range of cells by Right Click » Format cells » Select the tab. Various tabs are available as shown below

Formatting Cells option
Formatting Cells option

Alternative to Placing Background

  • Number − You can set the Format of the cell depending on the cell content. Find tutorial on this at MS Excel – Setting Cell Type.

  • Alignment − You can set the alignment of text on this tab. Find tutorial on this at MS Excel – Text Alignments.

  • Font − You can set the Font of text on this tab.Find tutorial on this at MS Excel – Setting Fonts.

  • Border − You can set border of cell with this tab.Find tutorial on this at MS Excel – Borders and Shades.

  • Fill − You can set fill of cell with this tab. Find tutorial on this at MS Excel – Borders and Shades.

  • Protection − You can set cell protection option with this tab.

Sheet Options in M S Excel

MS Excel provides various sheet options for printing purpose like generally cell gridlines aren’t printed. If you want your printout to include the gridlines, Choose Page Layout » Sheet Options group » Gridlines » Check Print.

Sheet Options
Sheet Options

Options in Sheet Options Dialogue

  • Print Area − You can set the print area with this option.

  • Print Titles − You can set titles to appear at the top for rows and at the left for columns.

  • Print −

    • Gridlines − Gridlines to appear while printing worksheet.

    • Black & White − Select this check box to have your color printer print the chart in black and white.

    • Draft quality − Select this check box to print the chart using your printer’s draft-quality setting.

    • Rows & Column Heading − Select this check box to have rows and column heading to print.

  • Page Order −

    • Down, then Over − It prints the down pages first and then the right pages.

    • Over, then Down − It prints right pages first and then comes to print the down pages.

How to Adjust Margins in M S Excel

Margins are the unprinted areas along the sides, top, and bottom of a printed page. All printed pages in MS Excel have the same margins. You can’t specify different margins for different pages.


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Margins

You can set margins by various ways as explained below.

  • Choose Page Layout » Page Setup » Margins drop-down list, you can select Normal, Wide, Narrow, or the custom Setting.

Setting Margins from Page Layout
Setting Margins from Page Layout

  • These options are also available when you choose File » Print.

Setting Margins from File Menu
Setting Margins from File Menu

If none of these settings does the job, choose Custom Margins to display the Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box, as shown below.

Setting Custom Margins
Setting Custom Margins

Center on Page

By default, Excel aligns the printed page at the top and left margins. If you want the output to be centered vertically or horizontally, select the appropriate check box in the Center on Page section of the Margins tab as shown in the above screenshot.

Types of Page Orientation in M S Excel

Page orientation refers to how output is printed on the page. If you change the orientation, the onscreen page breaks adjust automatically to accommodate the new paper orientation.


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Types of Page Orientation

  • Portrait − Portrait to print tall pages (the default).

  • Landscape − Landscape to print wide pages. Landscape orientation is useful when you have a wide range that doesn’t fit on a vertically oriented page.

Changing Page Orientation

  • Choose Page Layout » Page Setup » Orientation » Portrait or Landscape.

Setting Page orientation
Setting Page orientation
  • Choose File » Print.
Setting Page orientation from File Menu
Setting Page orientation from File Menu

Adding Header and Footer in M S Excel

A header is the information that appears at the top of each printed page and a footer is the information that appears at the bottom of each printed page. By default, new workbooks do not have headers or footers.


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Adding Header and Footer

  • Choose Page Setup dialog box » Header or Footer tab.
Setting Header and Footer
Setting Header and Footer

You can choose the predefined header and footer or create your custom ones.

  • &[Page] − Displays the page number.

  • &[Pages] − Displays the total number of pages to be printed.

  • &[Date] − Displays the current date.

  • &[Time] − Displays the current time.

  • &[Path]&[File] − Displays the workbook’s complete path and filename.

  • &[File] − Displays the workbook name.

  • &[Tab] − Displays the sheet’s name.

Other Header and Footer Options

When a header or footer is selected in Page Layout view, the Header & Footer » Design » Options group contains controls that let you specify other options −

  • Different First Page − Check this to specify a different header or footer for the first printed page.

  • Different Odd & Even Pages − Check this to specify a different header or footer for odd and even pages.

  • Scale with Document − If checked, the font size in the header and footer will be sized. Accordingly if the document is scaled when printed. This option is enabled, by default.

  • Align with Page Margins − If checked, the left header and footer will be aligned with the left margin, and the right header and footer will be aligned with the right margin. This option is enabled, by default.

Insert Page Break in M S Excel

If you don’t want a row to print on a page by itself or you don’t want a table header row to be the last line on a page. MS Excel gives you precise control over page breaks.


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Page Breaks

MS Excel handles page breaks automatically, but sometimes you may want to force a page break either a vertical or a horizontal one. so that the report prints the way you want.

For example, if your worksheet consists of several distinct sections, you may want to print each section on a separate sheet of paper.

Inserting Page Breaks

Insert Horizontal Page Break − For example, if you want row 14 to be the first row of a new page, select cell A14. Then choose Page Layout » Page Setup Group » Breaks » Insert Page Break.

Insert Horizontal Page Break
Insert Horizontal Page Break

Insert vertical Page break − In this case, make sure to place the pointer in row 1. Choose Page Layout » Page Setup » Breaks » Insert Page Breakto create the page break.

Insert Vertical Page Break
Insert Vertical Page Break

Removing Page Breaks

  • Remove a page break you’ve added − Move the cell pointer to the first row beneath the manual page break and then choose Page Layout » Page Setup » Breaks » Remove Page Break.

  • Remove all manual page breaks − Choose Page Layout » Page Setup » Breaks » Reset All Page Breaks.