MCA-122
Microprocessors
The 8086 in detail — architecture, addressing modes and assembly — then memory and peripheral interfacing, later Intel processors, and the 8051 and AVR microcontrollers.
- Semester
- Semester 2
- Credits
- 4
- Scheme
- 3 lectures + 1 tutorial a week
- Contact hours
- 40 across four units
- Category
- Core Elective - I
What the paper is
Microprocessors is the closest the MCA gets to the hardware. It is built around one chip, the 16-bit 8086, and studies it properly: pin assignments, internal architecture, addressing modes, the instruction set, and assembly programming against it.
Units II and III then widen out. Interfacing covers the support chips by number — 8251A, 8255A, 8254, 8257, 8259, 8279 — and each is examined as “what does it do and how is it programmed”, which makes them a list to learn rather than a concept to understand.
Unit IV switches from microprocessors to microcontrollers and from Intel to the 8051 and AVR. It is effectively a separate small paper, and it is the part most likely to be useful if you later go near embedded work or the Embedded Systems elective.
What to concentrate on
- Addressing modes and the instruction set are the foundation for everything else. Be able to write short 8086 routines — a loop, a string operation, an arithmetic sequence — without a reference, because that is exactly how they are asked.
- For interfacing, build a one-line summary of each support chip and its control word format. The exam rewards knowing which chip solves which problem more than knowing any one of them deeply.
- Unit III is descriptive rather than numerical: the 80386, 80486, Pentium and P6 are compared on their processor and programming models. Learn the differences as a progression, not as four separate descriptions.
Syllabus, unit by unit
Summarised from the approved scheme. Hours are the contact hours the scheme allots, which is a fair guide to where the marks sit.
Unit I · The 8086 and assembly programming
10 hours- Evolution of microprocessors and microcontrollers; overview of microcomputer systems, hardware and software, addresses
- General operation of a computer; microprocessors in digital system design
- 8086: pin assignments, CPU architecture and internal operation, addressing modes, instruction formats and the instruction set
- Assembler instruction format; data transfer, arithmetic and branch instructions
- Conditional and unconditional branches, loop instructions, logical, shift and rotate instructions, directives and operators
Unit II · Memory system design and I/O interfacing
10 hours- Interfacing SRAM, ROM and DRAM to the 8086, address decoding and timing
- I/O-mapped I/O, memory-mapped I/O, handshaking signals
- Serial communication interfaces: asynchronous and synchronous communication, physical standards, the 8251A USART
- The 8255A programmable peripheral interface, the 8254 programmable interval timer
- The 8257 DMA controller and the 8259 interrupt controller
- Interfacing the 8086 with an LED display, the 8253 timer and the 8279 keyboard/display controller
Unit III · Advanced microprocessors
10 hours- Architecture of the 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486, 8087 and Pentium
- The 80386: operating modes, processor model, programming model
- The 80486: processor and programming models
- The Pentium: processor and programming models, the Pentium evolution, Pentium MMX
- The P6 processors: overview, processor model and new architectural features
- ARM: architectural features and the logical block diagram of ARM7
Unit IV · The 8051 and AVR microcontrollers
10 hours- 8051 architecture, signals and operational features
- Memory and I/O addressing, interrupts, instruction set and applications
- The AVR RISC architecture: family architecture, register file, the ALU
- Memory access and instruction execution, I/O memory, EEPROM, I/O ports
- Timers, UART and interrupt structure
How it is examined
- Question 1 is compulsory, covers the whole syllabus, and is made of objective or short-answer questions. It carries 12 marks.
- The rest of the paper is four units matching the four above. Each unit sets two questions and you attempt one, so there are four more answers at 12 marks each.
- Examiners are asked to map every question to a course outcome using Bloom's taxonomy, which is why questions are phrased as “apply”, “analyse” or “evaluate” rather than only “explain”.
The pass mark is 40 out of 100 in every paper.
Learning objectives
- Features of microprocessor systems, and specifically the 16-bit 8086 — its architecture, internal organisation and functions
- The processor instruction set
- Low-level assembly language programming
- Interfacing external peripheral devices
- Advanced processors including RISC-based processors
Assumed beforehand
- Basics of electronics: transistors, flip-flops, registers
- Digital system fundamentals
- Assembly language programming
Paired in the scheme with MCA-168 Lab based on Core Elective I.
Books it is taught from
- TB1Yu-Cheng Liu and Glenn A. Gibson, “Microcomputer Systems: The 8086/8088 Family”, PHI Learning, 2nd edition, 2009
- TB2Barry B. Brey, “The Intel Microprocessors”, Pearson Prentice Hall, 8th edition, 2009
- TB3Muhammad Ali Mazidi et al., “The 8051 Microcontroller and Embedded Systems”, Pearson India, 2nd edition, 2007
- TB4Muhammad Ali Mazidi, Sarmad Naimi and Sepehr Naimi, “The AVR Microcontroller and Embedded Systems”, Pearson, 1st edition, 2013
Notes for MCA-122
Lecture notes, question papers and assignments filed against MCA-122 are in the library. Everything there has been checked by a moderator before it appears, and an account is free — new ones are approved by hand, which is what keeps the shelf clean.