IT FOR MANAGERS

ASSIGNMENT 1

NAME: E.LEOPRABHU
DATE: 29.07.2014 ROLL NO: P301313CMG443

1. What happened to the Intel 4004, the first microchip created in history?
Intel 4004 was perfect for calculators and similar applications it was not very suitable to be
used in microcomputers due to lacked interrupt support, had only 3-level deep stack, and used
complicated method of accessing the RAM. Despite the 4004s success, by late 70s with
the 8088, which powered the IBM PC and its clones, Intel decided to make the shift towards
microprocessors. The Intel 4004 microprocessor circuit line width was 10 microns, or 10,000
nanometres. Today, the circuit features of Intel microprocessors range between 45 and 32
nanometres. This made Intel 4004 microprocessor obsolete now a days.

2. How does the Intel 8088 differ from the Intel 8086? Why was the Intel 8088 released?
The following are the difference between Intel 8088 and 8086
Intel 8086 Intel 8088
The 8086 has 16 bit data bus. The 8088 has an 8 bit data bus.
The 8086 has a 6 byte instruction queue
The 8088 has a 4 byte queue.
The bus interface unit on the 8086 is 16
bits wide The 8088 it is 8 bits wide
8086 is available in three clock speeds
5MHz,8 MHz & 10 MHz
8088 is available in two clock speeds
only 5MHz & 8 MHz.
The I/O voltage level for 8086 is 2.5mA I/O voltage level is 2mA

Both processors have the same architecture, and the only difference of the 8088 CPU from
the 8086 is the external data bus width - it was reduced from 16 bits to 8 bits. The 8088 CPU
uses two consecutive bus cycles to read or write 16 bit data instead of one bus cycle for the
8086, which makes the 8088 processor to run slower.
Hardware changes to the 8088 CPU made it compatible with 8080/8085 support chips. This
was an important factor in choosing the 8088 processor for IBM PC line of computers
because at that time 8-bit support chips were cheaper than 16-bit support chips, and there
was better selection of 8-bit chips.



3. Why was the frequency of the Intel 8086 (8088) set to 4.77 MHz?
The CPU oscillator keeps time for the CPU in much the same way a metronome keeps time
for a musician. At each tick of the CPU clock (that is, at each pulse in the CPU oscillators
signal), the CPU carries out part of one machine instruction. All instructions require two or
more clock cycles to complete. For example, the register INC instruction requires two clock
cycles to execute; more complicated instructions like CALL and MUL take a longer amount
of time.
The odd clock speed of 4.77 MHz was actually a convenient frequency for the designers of
the original PC to use. In fact, the CPU clock frequency is derived from a basic oscillator
frequency of 14.31818 MHz, which is commonly used in television circuitry so that the
processor will be compatible with TV. Dividing the basic frequency by 3 gives the CPU
clock frequency.