with
a clearly
defined
activity
IS
called a
State.
And
the
inter-
val
between
pulses
of
the
timing
oscillator
is
referred
to
as a
Clock Period. As a general rule,
one
or
more
clock periods
are necessary
for
the
completion
of
a
state,
and
there
are
several
states
in
a cycle.
Instruction Fetch:
The
first state(s)
of
any
instruction
cycle will be
dedicated
to
fetching
the
next
instruction.
The
CPU issues a
read signal and
the
contents
of
the
program
counter
are
sent
to
memory,
which
responds
by
returning
the
next
instruc-
tion
word.
The
first
byte
of
the
instruction
is
placed
in
the
instruction
register. If
the
instruction
consists
of
more
than
one
byte,
additional
states
are
required
to
fetch each
byte
of
the
instruction.
When
the
entire
instruction
is
present
in
the
CPU,
the
program
counter
is
incremented
(in prepara-
tion
for
the
next
instruction
fetch)
and
the
instruction
is
decoded.
The
operation
specified in
the
instruction
will be
executed
in
the
remaining
states
of
the
instruction
cycle.
The
instruction
may
call
for
a
memory
read
or
write,
an
input
or
output
and/or
an internal CPU
operation,
such as
a register-to-register
transfer
or
an
add-registers
operation.
Memory
Read:
An
instruction
fetch
is
merely a special
memory
read
operation
that
brings
the
instruction
to
the
CPU's instruc-
tion
register.
The
instruction
fetched
may
then
call for
data
to
be
read
from
memory
into
the
CPU.
The
CPU again issues
a read signal
and
sends
the
proper
memory
address;
memory
responds
by
returning
the
requested
word.
The
data
re-
ceived
is
placed
in
the
accumulator
or
one
of
the
other
gen-
eral
purpose
registers
(not
the
instruction
register).
Memory
Write:
A
memory
write
operation
is
similar
to
a read
except
for
the
direction
of
data
flow.
The
CPU issues a write
signal, sends
the
proper
memory
address,
then
s~nds
the
data
word
to
be
written
into
the
addressed
memory
location.
Wait (memory synchronization):
As previously
stated,
the
activities
of
the
processor
are
timed
by
a
master
clock oscillator.
The
clock
period
determines
the
timing
of
all processing activity.
The
speed
of
the
processing cycle, however,
is
limited
by
the
memory's
Access
Time.
Once
the
processor has
sent
a
read address
to
memory,
it
cannot
proceed
until
the
memory
has
had
time
to
respond.
Most
memories
are
capable
of
responding
much
faster
than
the
processing cycle requires.
A few, however,
cannot
supply
the
addressed
byte
within
the
minimum
time
established
by
the
processor's
clock.
Therefore
a
processor
should
contain
a synchroniza-
tion
provision, which
permits
the
memory
to
request
a Wait
state.
When
the
memory
receives a read
or
write
enable
~ig
nal, it places a
request
signal
on
the processor'sR
EADY
f.ine,
causing
the
CPU
to
idle
temporarily.
After
the
memory
has
1-4
had
time
to
respond,
it frees
the
processor's
READY
line,
and
the
instruction
cycle proceeds.
Input/Output:
InpLJt
and
Output
operations
are similar
to
memory
read
and
write
operations
with
the
exception
that
a peri-
pherall/O
device
is
addressed instead
of
a
memory
location.
The
CPU issues
the
appropriate
input
or
outppt
control
signal, sends
the
proper
device
address
and
either
receives
the
data
being
input
or
sends
the
data
to
be
output.
Data
can be
input/output
in
either
parallel
or
serial
form.
All
data
within
a digital
computer
is
represented
in
binary
coded
form.
A
binary
data
word
consists
of
a
group
of
bits; each bit
is
either
a
one
or
a zero. Parallel I/O con-
sists
of
transferring
all bits
in
the
word
at
the
same
time,
one
bit
per line. Serial I/O consists
of
transferring
one
bit
at
a
time
on
a single line.
Naturally
serial
I/O
is
much
slower,
but
it
requires
considerably
less
hardware
than
does
parallel I/O.
Interrupts:
Interrupt
provisions are included
on
many
central
processors, as a
means
of
improving
the
processor's
effi-
ciency.
Consider
the
case
of
a
computer
that
is
processing a
large
volume
of
data,
portions
of
which
are
to
be
output
to
a
printer.
The
CPU can
output
a
byte
of
data
within
a
single
machine
cycle
but
it
may
take
the
printer
the
equiva-
lent
of
many
machine
cycles
to
actually
print
the
character
specified by
the
data
byte.
The
CPU
could
then
remain
idle
waiting until
the
printer
can
accept
the
next
data
byte.
If
an
interrupt
capability
is
implemented
on
the
computer,
the
CPU can
output
a
data
byte
then
return
to
data
processing.
When
the
printer
is
ready
to
accept
the
next
data
byte,
it
can
request
an
interrupt.
When
the
CPU
acknowledges
the
interrupt,
it
suspends
main program
execution
and
auto-
matically
branches
to
a
routine
that
will
output
the
next
data
byte.
After
the
byte
is
output,
the
CPU
continues
with
main
program
execution.
Note
that
this
is,
in principle,
quite
similar
to
a SUbroutine call,
except
that
the
jump
is
initiated
externally
rather
than
by
the
program.
More
complex
interrupt
structures
are
possible,
in
which
several
interrupting
devices share
the
same
processor
but
have
different
priority
levels.
Interruptive
processing
is
an
important
feature
that
enables
maximum
untilization
of
a
processor's
capacity
for
high system
throughput.
Hold:
Another
important
feature
that
improves
the
through-
put
of
a processor
is
the
Hold.
The
hold
provision
enables
Direct
Memory
Access (DMA)
operations.
In
ordinary
input
and
output
operations,
the
processor
itself supervises
the
entire
data
transfer.
Information
to
be
placed
in
memory
is
transferred
from
the
input
device
to
the
processor,
and
then
from
the
processor
to
the
designated
memory
location.
In
similar fashion,
information
that
goes