A Critical Review of the 8-Bit Microprocessors

The 8-bit microprocessors find wide applications in process control systems, intelligent terminals and instruments, traffic controllers, communication processors, point of sale terminals etc. M/s Intel Corporation were the first to introduce the 8-bit Microprocessor 8008. Faster and more powerful second-generation 8-bit processors were introduced shortly by various semiconductor manufacturers, the more popular among them being Intelu0027s 8080 and Motorolau0027s 6800. The various types introduced, differed widely in architecture. RCAu0027s COSMAC employed COSMOS technology resulting in certain special features-not available in other processors. The wide acceptance of these devices and the very high demand for the 8-bit processor resulted in the introduction of the third-generation devices in the last year. Zilog 80, Intelu0027s 8048 and 8085, providing extra power, single-supply operation and minimal external circuitry, come under this category.In this paper, an attempt is made to critically review the architecture of th...