Chapter 4

Embedded Processors

In This Chapter

• Discussing what an ISA is and what it defines

• Discussing the internal processor design as related to the von Neumann model

• Introducing processor performance

Processors are the main functional units of an embedded board, and are primarily responsible for processing instructions and data. An electronic device contains at least one master processor, acting as the central controlling device, and can have additional slave processors that work with and are controlled by the master processor. These slave processors may either extend the instruction set of the master processor or act to manage memory, buses, and I/O (input/output) devices. In the block diagram of an x86 reference board, shown in Figure ...

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