Practical CMOS microprocessor systems

Abstract

Many have felt that complementary metal-oxide silicon (CMOS) has not yet become a practical semiconductor technology for microprocessor-based systems. Recent progress has made that impression obsolete. A selection of CMOS microprocessors is available at speeds matching N-channel metal-oxide silicon microprocessor units (NMOS MPUs). CMOS memories have also become broadly available in the last few years. The needed peripheral circuits are now appearing. A CMOS parallel interface peripheral provides 24 interface pins and is bus-compatible with practically all the new-generation CMOS microprocessors. The last element needed to assemble practical all-CMOS microprocessor systems are the small-scale integration/medium-scale integration (SSI/MSI) logic functions. Gates, decoders, latches, and flip-flops are typically needed to operate a bus structure of a multichip system.This report concentrates on the newest methods of achieving a full-performance all-CMOS microprocessor system. The focus is on the parallel interface peripheral and on using CMOS logic functions in practical bus connections.