What is Clock Speed ?

Clock speed is measured in the MHz and it determines that how many instructions a
processor can processed. The speed of the microprocessor is measured in the MHz or GHz.
Why crystal is a preferred clock source?
Because of high stability, large Q (Quality Factor) & the frequency that doesnt drift with
aging. Crystal is used as a clock source most of the times.
What is Tri-state logic?
Three Logic Levels are used and they are High, Low, High impedance state. The high and
low are normal logic levels & high impedance state is electrical open circuit conditions. Tristate logic has a third line called enable line
13.What is Program counter?
Program counter holds the address of either the first byte of the next instruction to be fetched
for execution or the address of the next byte of a multi byte instruction, which has not been
completely fetched. In both the cases it gets incremented automatically one by one as the
instruction bytes get fetched. Also Program register keeps the address of the next instruction.
Define opcode and operand.
Opcode (Operation code) is the part of an instruction / directive that identifies a specific
operation.
Operand is a part of an instruction / directive that represents a value on which the instruction
acts.

14. What is 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th generation processor?

The processor made of PMOS / NMOS / HMOS / HCMOS technology is called 1st / 2nd /
3rd / 4th generation processor, and it is made up of 4 / 8 / 16 / 32 bits.
19.What is meant by Maskable interrupts?
An interrupt that can be turned off by the programmer is known as Maskable interrupt.
43.What is an Instruction?
A:-An instruction is a binary pattern enetered through an input device to command the
microprocessor to perform that specific function.
39. What is Instruction cycle?
The sequence of operations that a processor has to carry out while executing the instruction is
called Instruction cycle. Each instruction cycle of a processor indium consists of a number of
machine cycles.
What is Assembler?
A:-The assembler translates the assembly language program text which is given as input to
the assembler to their binary equivalents known as object code.

The time required to translate the assembly code to object code is called access time.
Define Pipelining?
A:-In 8086,to speedup the execution program,the instructions fetching and execution of
instructions are overlapped each other.this is known as Pipelining.
Difference between JMP and JNC?
A:-JMP is Unconditional Branch.
JNC is Conditional Branch.
What is assembly language?
The language in which the mnemonics (short -hand form of instructions) are used to write a
program is called assembly language. The manufacturers of microprocessor give the
mnemonics.
What are machine language and assembly language programs?
The software developed using 1's and 0's are called machine language,programs. The
software developed using mnemonics are called assembly language programs.
What is the drawback in machine language and assembly language, programs?
The machine language and assembly language programs are machine dependent. The
programs developed using these languages for a particular machine cannot be directly run on
another machine .

64. What is a bus?

Bus is a group of conducting lines that carries data, address and control signals.
65. Why data bus is bi-directional?
The microprocessor has to fetch (read) the data from memory or input device for processing
and after processing, it has to store (write) the data to memory or output device. Hence the
data bus is bi-directional.
66. Why address bus is unidirectional?
The address is an identification number used by the microprocessor to identify or access a
memory location or I / O device. It is an output signal from the processor. Hence the address
bus is unidirectional.
What is pipelined architecture?
In pipelined architecture the processor will have number of functional units and the execution
time of functional units are overlapped. Each functional unit works independently most of the
time.

Define machine cycle.

Machine cycle is defined as the time required to complete one operation of accessing
memory, I/O, or acknowledging an external request. This cycle may consist of three to six Tstates.
23. Define T-State.
T-State is defined as one subdivision of the operation performed in one clock period. These
subdivisions are internal states synchronized with the system clock, and each T-State is
precisely equal to one clock period.
25. Why interfacing is needed for 1/0 devices?
Generally I/O devices are slow devices. Therefore the speed of I/O devices does not match
with the speed of microprocessor. And so an interface is provided between system bus and
I/O devices.
27..What does memory-mapping mean?
The memory mapping is the process of interfacing memories to microprocessor and
allocating addresses to each memory locations.
What is the drawback in memory mapped I/0?
When I/O devices are memory mapped, some of the addresses are allotted to I/O devices and
so the full address space cannot be used for addressing memory (i.e., physical memory
address space will be reduced). Hence memory mapping is useful only for small systems,
where the memory requirement is less.
What is Polling?
Polling is a scheme or an algorithm to identify the devices interrupting the processor. Polling
is employed when multiple devices interrupt the processor through one interrupt pin of the
processor.
s.
89. What is an Interrupt?
Interrupt is a signal send by an external device to the processor so as to request the processor
to perform a particular task or work
What is baud rate?
The baud rate is the rate at which the serial data are transmitted. Baud rate is defined as l
/(The time for a bit cell). In some systems one bit cell has one data bit, then the baud rate and
bits/sec are same.
87. What is USART?
The device which can be programmed to perform Synchronous or Asynchronous serial
communication is called USART (Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver
Transmitter). The INTEL 8251A is an example of USART.
What are the tasks involved in keyboard interface?

The task involved in keyboard interfacing are sensing a key actuation, Debouncing the key
and Generating key codes (Decoding the key). These task are performed software if the
keyboard is interfaced through ports and they are performed by hardware if the keyboard is
interfaced through 8279.
What is scanning in keyboard and what is scan time?
The process of sending a zero to each row of a keyboard matrix and reading the columns for
key actuation is called scanning. The scan time is the time taken by the processor to scan all
the rows one by one starting from first row and coming back to the first row again.

8051 was developed using which technology?

Intels original MCS-51 family was developed using NMOS technology, but later versions,
identified by a letter C in their name (e.g., 80C51) used CMOS technology and consume less
power than their NMOS predecessors. This made them more suitable for battery-powered
devices.
List out the features of 8051 micro controller?

40 Pin IC.
128 bytes of RAM.
4K ROM.
2 Timers (Timer 0 and Timer 1).
32 Input/ Output pins.
1 serial port.
6 Interrupts (Including Reset).

With 12 MHz clock frequency how many instructions (of 1 machine cycle and 2
machine cycle) it can execute per second?
A cycle is, in reality, 12 pulses of the crystal. That is to say, if an instruction takes one
machine cycle to execute, it will take 12 pulses of the crystal to execute. Since we know the
crystal is pulsing 11,059,000 times per second and that one machine cycle is 12 pulses, we
can calculate how many instruction cycles the 8051 can execute per second:
11,059,000 / 12 = 921,583
This means that the 8051 can execute 921,583 single-cycle instructions per second. Since a
large number of 8051 instructions are single-cycle instructions it is often considered that the
8051 can execute roughly 1 million instructions per second, although in reality it is lessand,
depending on the instructions being used, an estimate of about 600,000 instructions per
second is more realistic.
NOTE: It is again important to emphasize that not all instructions execute in the same
amount of time. The fastest instructions require one machine cycle (12 crystal pulses), many

others require two machine cycles (24 crystal pulses), and the two very slow math operations
require four machine cycles (48 crystal pulses).

List out addressing Modes in MCS-51

Direct Addressing
Register Addressing
Register Indirect Addressing
Implicit Addressing
Immediate Addressing
Index Addressing

How much total external data memory that can be interfaced to the 8051?
64K data memory

How is a program executed bit by bit or byte by byte?

EXAMPLE
ADDRESS
1 0000
2 0000
3 0002
4 0004
5 0005

OPCODE
7D25
7F34
2D

PROGRAM
ORG 0H
MOV R5,#25H
MOV R7,#34H
ADD A, R5
END

A program is always executed byte by byte.

Firstly, 1st opcode 7D is fetched from location 0000 and then the value 25 is fetched
from 0001.
25 is then placed in the register R5 and program counter is incremented to point 0002.
On execution of opcode 7F, value 34 is copied to register R7.
Then addition of contents of R5 and accumulator takes place.
Here all the opcodes are 8 bit forming a byte

Explain DB.

DB is called as define byte used as a directive in the assembler.

It is used to define the 8 bit data in binary, hexadecimal or decimal formats.

It is the only directive that can be used to define ASCII strings larger than two
characters.
DB is also used to allocate memory in byte sized chunks.
The assembler always converts the numbers into hexadecimal.

What is EQU?

EQU is the equate assembler directive used to define a constant without occupying a
memory location.
It associates a constant value with data label.
Whenever the label appears in the program, constant value is substituted for label.
Advantage: The constant value occurring at various positions in a program can be
changed at once using this directive.
Syntax: label EQU constant value

Can port 0 be used as input output port?

Yes, port 0 can be used as input output port. Port 0 is an open drain unlike ports 2, 3, 4. To
use it as input or output the 10k ohm pull-up resisters are connected to it externally. T
Which 2 ports combine to form the 16 bit address for external memory access?

Port0 and port2 together form the 16 bit address for external memory.
Port0 uses pins 32 to 39 of 8051 to give the lower address bits(AD0-AD7)
Port2 uses pins 21 to 28 of 8051 to give the higher address bits(A8-A15)

Q5. Explain the TCON special function register?

Ans: TCON special function register
TF1 TR1 TF0 TR0 IE1 IT1 IE0 IT0
Explain the above table based on your microcontroller knowledge of flags1 and 0s and
others.

ANSWER
Q6. Explain TMOD special function register.
Ans: TMOD special function register
Gate C/Tbar M1 M0 Gate C/Tbar M1 M0

ANSWER
Q7. Draw the special function register for SCON and PCON.
Ans: SCON
SM0 SM1 SM2 REN TB8 RB8 TI RI
PCON:
SM0D -- -- -- GF1 GF0 PD IDL

ANSWER
Q9. Draw and explain the Interrupt enable (IE) and Interrupt Priority (IP) special function
register.
Ans: IE special function register:
EA -- ET2 ES ET1 EX1 ET0 EX0
IP special function registers:
-- -- PT2 PS PT1 PX1 PT0 PX0
- not implemented
PT2: Reserved for future use.
PS: Priority of serial port interrupt.
PT1: Priority of timer of 1 overflow interrupt. Set cleared by program.
PX1: Priority of external int 1.
PT0: Priority of timer 0 overflow interrupt.
PX0: Priority of external int 0.
[2] List some of the 8051 microcontroller manufacturers?
Intel

Philips
Infineon
Maxim/Dellas semiconductor
Atmel
] List out some of the features of the 8051?
ROM 4K bytes
RAM 128 bytes
Timer 2 no
I/O Pins 32
Serial Port 1
Interrupt sources 6
[5] What are the various types of memories used in microcontroller/microprocessor?
ROM Read Only Memory
RAM Random Access Memory
PROM Programmable Read Only Memory
EPROM Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
EEROM Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
Word:
A group of bits that the computer recognises and processes at a time is called a word.The
lenth of the word may varies from four bits to 32 bits. Here the 4 bits are used for small
microprocessors and 32 bits are used for large computers like IBM 370.
Instructions:
A command formed using binary digits that are recognised and executed by the computer to
perform as task. Group of one or more words forms an instruction.
Program:
Sequence of instructions that are written for the computer to perform a particular task is
called as program.