SCI3SLP

SCI3SLP: Integrated Circuits, Microprocessors, Chip Sets



SCI3SLP: Integrated Circuits, Microprocessors, Chip Sets

Introduction

The processor, or CPU (the Central Processing Unit), is the component running the computer programs. With the memory in particular, it is one of the components that have existed since the first computers. A processor constructed in one integrated circuit is a microprocessor (McFarland 2006). In this paper, I review the major steps in designing and manufacturing a new microprocessor. In doing so, I also present the advantages of computer simulations, and how the computer design tools facilitate the coordination of design and manufacturing.

Discussion

The first step in designing a new processor does not happen in a laboratory or factory but in the offices of engineers and scientists or, more precisely, behind a CAD / CAM (design and computer programming). The manufacturer will then select the different bricks that will integrate to its processor, that is to say elements supporting software such as transaction processing multimedia (playback audio or video). This feature set is called the instruction set processor: it defines how to process transactions (Rabaey, Anantha and Borivoje 2003).

Meanwhile, engineers working on the architecture of the various components of the processor. Processor proves to be indeed a combination of various elements, having a cache, an instruction set, and its interconnection with the motherboard. This prototype, only on paper till then, is tested in a virtual way through CAD / CAM. Simulation allows detection of possible bugs before moving to the manufacturing stage itself (McFarland 2006). When the program and the processor architecture are decided, teams must translate this concept foundry software for electronic components. They reproduce using printed circuit logical operations (addition, multiplication, division) and establish a uniform format which will then serve as a kind of mold during the etching phase (Flich and Davide 2011).

The principle of a processor is based on the integrated circuit. Specifically, it acts as a door capable of carrying the current (electrons) or the block. From simple binary operations and current flows, computers can perform a series of complex calculations. As a computer needs to run as much as many possible operations per second, scientists are basing the current flow on a solid material called a semiconductor (Rabaey, Anantha and Borivoje 2003). A silicon wafer semiconductor material is capable of relaying the electric current having physical properties halfway between an ideal conductor (metal) and the insulation. They control both the current ...