Web100

News | Documentation | Hardware | Software | Books | Links

Intel 8080 Central Processing Unit

©Intel 1980

Preface


Since their inception, digital computers have continuously become more efficient, expanding into new applications with each major technological improvement. The advent of minicomputers enabled the inclusion of digital computers as a permanent part of various process control systems.

Unfortunately, the size and cost of minicomputers in "dedicated" applications has limited their use. Another approach has been the use of custom built systems made up of "random logic" (i.e., logic gates, flip-flops, counters, etc.). However, the huge expense and development time involved in the design and debugging of these systems has restricted their use to large volume applications where the development costs could be spread over a large number of machines .

Today, Intel offers the systems designer a new alternative. . .the microcomputer. Utilizing the technologies and experience gained in becoming the world's largest supplier of LSI memory components, Intel has made the power of the digital computer available at the integrated circuit level. Using the nchannel silicon gate MOS process, Intel engineers have implemented the fast (2 us. cycle) and powerful (72 basic instructions) 8080 microprocessor on a single LSI chip. When this processor is combined with memory and I / O circuits, the computer is complete. Intel offers a variety of random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM) and shift register circuits, that combine with the 8080 processor to form the MCS80 microcomputer system, a system that can directly address and retrieve as many as 65,536 bytes stored in the memory devices.

The 8080 processor is packaged in a 40 pin dual inline package (Dl P) that allows for remarkably easy interfacing. The 8080 has a 16 bit address bus, a 8 bit bi-directional data bus and fully decoded, TTL compatible control outputs. In addition to supporting up to 64K bytes of mixed RAM and ROM memory, the 8080 can address up to 256 input ports and 256 output ports; thus allowing for virtually unlimited system expansion. The 8080 instruction set includes conditional branching, decimal as well as binary arithmetic, logical, register to register, stack control and memory reference instructions. In fact, the 8080 instruction set is powerful enough to rival the performance of many of the much higher priced minicomputers, yet the 8080 is upward software compatible with Intel's earlier 8008 microprocessor (i.e., programs written for the 8008 can be assembled and executed on the 8080).

In addition to an extensive instruction set oriented to problem solving, the 8080 has another significant feature-SPEED. In contrast to random logic designs which tend to work in parallel, the microcomputer works by sequentially executing its program. As a result of this sequential execution, the number of tasks a microcomputer can undertake in a given period of time is directly proportional to the execution speed of the microcomputer. The speed of execution is the limiting factor of the realm of applications of the microcomputer. The 8080, with instruction times as short as 2 1lsec., is an order of magnitude faster than earlier generations of microcomputers, and therefore has an expanded field of potential applications.

The architecture of the 8080 also shows a significant improvement over earlier microcomputer designs. The 8080 contains a 16bit stack pointer that controls the addressing of an external stack located in memory. The pointer can be initialized via the proper instructions such that any portion of external memory can be used as a last in/ first out stack; thus enabling almost unlimited subroutine nesting. The stack pointer allows the contents of the program counter, the accumulator, the condition flags or any of the data registers to be stored in or retrieved from the external stack. In addition, multilevel interrupt processing is possible using the 8080's stack control instructions. The status of the processor can be "pushed" onto the stack when an interrupt is accepted, then "popped" off the stack after the interrupt has been serviced. This ability to save the contents of the processor's registers is possible even if an interrupt service routine, itself, is interrupted.

ADVANTAGES OF DESIGNING WITH MICROCOMPUTERS


Microcomputers simplify almost every phase of product development. The first step, as in any product development program, is to identify the various functions that the end system is expected to perform. Instead of realizing these functions with networks of gates and flip-flops, the functions are implemented by encoding suitable sequences of instructions (programs) in the memory elements. Data and certain types of programs are stored in RAM, while the basic program can be stored in ROM. The microprocessor performs all of the system's functions by fetching the instructions in memory, executing them, and communicating the results via the microcomputer's I / O ports. An 8080 microprocessor, executing the programmed logic stored in a single 2048byte ROM element, can perform the same logical functions that might have previously required up to 1000 logic gates.

The benefits of designing a microcomputer into your system go far beyond the advantages of merely simplifying product development. You will also appreciate the profit making advantages of using a microcomputer in place of custom designed random logic. The most apparent advantage is the significant savings in hardware costs. A microcomputer chip set replaces dozens of random logic elements, thus reducing the cost as well as the size of your system. In addition, production costs drop as the number of individual components to be handled decreases, and the number of complex printed circuit boards (which are difficult to layout, test and correct) is greatly reduced.

Probably the most profitable advantage of a microcomputer is its flexibility for change. To modify your system, you merely reprogram the memory elements; you don't have to redesign the entire system. You can imagine the savings in time and money when you want to upgrade your product. Reliability is another reason to choose the microcomputer over random logic. As the number of components decreases, the probability of a malfunctioning element likewise decreases. All of the logical control functions formerly performed by numerous hardware components can now be implemented in a few ROM circuits which are nonvolatile; that is, the contents of ROM will never be lost, even in the event of a power failure. Table 0 I summarizes many of the advantages of using microcomputers.

MICROCOMPUTER DESIGN AIDS


If you're used to logic design and the idea of designing with programmed logic seems like too radical a change, regardless of advantages, there's no need to worry because Intel has already done most of the groundwork for you. The INTELLECT Microcomputer Development System provides flexible, inexpensive and simplified methods for OEM product development. The INTELLEC MDS provides RAM program storage making program loading and modification easier, a display and control console for system monitoring and debugging, standard TTY and CRT interfaces, in circuit emulation capability (ICE80), PROM programming capability using the Universal PROM Programmer module, and a standard software package (System Monitor, Assembler and Text Editor). In addition to the standard software package available with the INTELLEC MDS Intel offers a resident PL/ M compiler. Intel's Microcomputer Division is always available to provide assistance in every phase of your product development.

Intel also provides complete documentation on all their hardware and software products. In addition to this User's Manual, there are the:

 

APPLICATIONS EXAMPLE

The 8080 can be used as the basis for a wide variety of calculation and control systems. The system configurations for particular applications will differ in the nature of the peripheral devices used and in the amount and the type of memory required. The applications and solutions described in this section are presented primarily to show how microcomputers can be used to solve design problems. The 8080 should not be considered limited either in scope or performance to those applications listed here.

Consider an 8080 microcomputer used within an automatic computing scale for a supermarket. The basic machine has two input devices: the weighing unit and a keyboard, used for function selection and to enter the price per unit of weight. The only output device is a display showing the total price, although a ticket printer might be added as an optional output device.

The control unit must accept information from the weighing unit, function and data inputs from the keyboard, and generate the display. The only arithmetic function to be performed is a simple multiplication of weight times rate.

The control unit could probably be realized with standard TTL logic. State diagrams for the various portions could be drawn and a multiplier unit designed The whole design could then be tied together, and eventually reduced to a selection of packages and a printed circuit board layout. In effect, when designing with a logic family such as TTL, the designs are "customized" by the choice of packages and the wiring of the logic.

If, however, an 8080 microcomputer is used to realize the control unit (as shown in Figure 01), the only "custom" logic will be that of the interface circuits. These circuits are usually quite simple, providing electrical buffering for the input and output signals.

Instead of drawing state diagrams leading to logic, the system designer now prepares a flow chart, indicating which input signals must be read, what processing and computations are needed, and what output signals must be produced. A program is written from the flow chart. The program is then assembled into bit patterns which are loaded into the program memory. Thus, this system is customized primarily by the contents of program memory.

For this automatic scale, the program would probably reside in read-only memory (ROM), since the microcomputer would always execute the same program, the one which implements the scale functions. The processor would constantly monitor the keyboard and weighing unit, and update the display whenever necessary. The unit would require very little data memory; it would only be needed for rate storage, intermediate results, and for storing a copy of the display.

When the control portion of a product is implemented with a microcomputer chip set, functions can be changed and features added merely by altering the program in memory. With a TTL based system, however, alterations may require extensive rewiring, alteration of PC along with the types of peripheral devices usually associated boards, etc.with each product.

The number of applications for microcomputers is limited only by the depth of the designers imagination We have listed a few potential applications in Table 02.

Santa Clara, California
January 1980
ROB WALKER


ureturn.gif (2080 bytes)

Return to: | Documents | 8085 |

Continue on: | CPU Functions | 8085a Specs | 8-bit family | Glossary |


11/03/97