MCP-1600
The MCP-1600 is a multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor introduced by Western Digital in 1975 and produced through the early 1980s. Used in the Pascal MicroEngine, the WD16 processor in the Alpha Microsystems AM-100, and the DEC LSI-11 microcomputer, a cost-reduced and compact implementation of the DEC PDP-11. Description There are three types of chips in the chip-set: * CP1611 RALU - Register ALU chip * CP1621 CON - Control chip * CP1631 MICROM - Mask-programmed microcode ROM chip (512 – 22 bit words) The chips use a 3.3MHz four phase clock and three power supply voltages (+5V, +12V, and -5V), as required by the N-channel silicon gate process then available at Western Digital. Internally the MCP-1600 is a (relatively fast) 8-bit processor that can be micro-programmed to emulate a 16-bit CPU. All byte operations execute in one clock period; word operations and branches take two clocks. Up to four MICROMs are supported, but usually two or three could hold the neede ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Western Digital WD16
The WD16 is a 16-bit microprocessor introduced by Western Digital in October 1976. It is based on the MCP-1600 chipset, a general-purpose design that was also used to implement the DEC LSI-11 low-end minicomputer and the Pascal MicroEngine processor. The three systems differed primarily in their microcode, giving each system a unique instruction set architecture (ISA). The WD16 implements an extension of the PDP-11 instruction set architecture but is not machine code compatible with the PDP-11. The instruction set and microcoding were created by Dick Wilcox and Rich Notari. The WD16 is an example of orthogonal CISC architecture. Most two-operand instructions can operate memory-to-memory with any addressing mode and some instructions can result in up to ten memory accesses. The WD16 is implemented in five 40-pin DIP packages. Maximum clock speed is 3.3 MHz. Its interface to memory is via a 16-bit multiplexed data/address bus. The WD16 is best known for its use in Alph ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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16-bit Microprocessors
16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two most common representations, the range is 0 through 65,535 (216 − 1) for representation as an ( unsigned) binary number, and −32,768 (−1 × 215) through 32,767 (215 − 1) for representation as two's complement. Since 216 is 65,536, a processor with 16-bit memory addresses can directly access 64 KB (65,536 bytes) of byte-addressable memory. If a system uses segmentation with 16-bit segment offsets, more can be accessed. As of 2025, 16-bit microcontrollers cost well under a dollar (similar to close in price legacy 8-bit); the cheapest 16-bit microcontrollers cost less than other types including any 8-bit (and are more powerful, and easier to program generally), making 8-bit legacy microcontrollers not worth it for new applications; 3 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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16-bit
16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two most common representations, the range is 0 through 65,535 (216 − 1) for representation as an ( unsigned) binary number, and −32,768 (−1 × 215) through 32,767 (215 − 1) for representation as two's complement. Since 216 is 65,536, a processor with 16-bit memory addresses can directly access 64 KB (65,536 bytes) of byte-addressable memory. If a system uses segmentation with 16-bit segment offsets, more can be accessed. As of 2025, 16-bit microcontrollers cost well under a dollar (similar to close in price legacy 8-bit); the cheapest 16-bit microcontrollers cost less than other types including any 8-bit (and are more powerful, and easier to program generally), making 8-bit legacy microcontrollers not worth it for new applicatio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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LSI-11
The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers originally sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, making it one of DEC's most successful product lines. The PDP-11 is considered by some experts to be the most popular minicomputer. The PDP–11 included a number of innovative features in its instruction set and additional general-purpose registers that made it easier to program than earlier models in the PDP series. Further, the innovative Unibus system allowed external devices to be more easily interfaced to the system using direct memory access, opening the system to a wide variety of peripherals. The PDP–11 replaced the PDP–8 in many real-time computing applications, although both product lines lived in parallel for more than 10 years. The ease of programming of the PDP–11 made it popular for general-purpo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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PDP-11
The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers originally sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, making it one of DEC's most successful product lines. The PDP-11 is considered by some experts to be the most popular minicomputer. The PDP–11 included a number of innovative features in its instruction set and additional general-purpose registers that made it easier to program than earlier models in the PDP series. Further, the innovative Unibus system allowed external devices to be more easily interfaced to the system using direct memory access, opening the system to a wide variety of peripherals. The PDP–11 replaced the PDP–8 in many real-time computing applications, although both product lines lived in parallel for more than 10 years. The ease of programming of the PDP–11 made it popular for general-pur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Western Digital
Western Digital Corporation is an American data storage company headquartered in San Jose, California. Established in 1970, the company is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives (HDDs). History 1970s Western Digital was founded on April 23, 1970, by Alvin B. Phillips, a Motorola employee, as General Digital Corporation, initially a manufacturer of MOS test equipment. It was originally based in Newport Beach, California, shortly thereafter moving to Santa Ana, California, and would go on to become one of the largest technology firms headquartered in Orange County. It rapidly became a specialty semiconductor maker, with start-up capital provided by several individual investors and industrial giant Emerson Electric. Around July 1971, it adopted its current name and soon introduced its first product, the ''WD1402A'' UART. During the early 1970s, the company focused on making and selling calculator chips, and by 1975, Western Digital was the largest ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pascal MicroEngine
Pascal MicroEngine is a series of microcomputer products manufactured by Western Digital from 1979 through the mid-1980s, designed specifically to run the UCSD p-System efficiently. Compared to other microcomputers, which use a machine language p-code interpreter, the Pascal MicroEngine has its interpreter implemented in microcode; p-code is its machine language. The most common programming language used on the p-System is Pascal. The MicroEngine runs a special release III p-System. The enhancements of release III were incorporated into release IV which was made publicly available for other platforms but not for the MicroEngine. Products The MicroEngine series of products was offered at various levels of integration: * WD-9000 five chip microprocessor chip set * WD-900 single board computer * WD-90 packaged system * SB-1600 MicroEngine single board computer * ME-1600 Modular MicroEngine packaged system The MicroEngine chipset was based on the MCP-1600 chipset, which formed the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Microcode
In processor design, microcode serves as an intermediary layer situated between the central processing unit (CPU) hardware and the programmer-visible instruction set architecture of a computer. It consists of a set of hardware-level instructions that implement the higher-level machine code instructions or control internal finite-state machine sequencing in many digital processing components. While microcode is utilized in Intel and AMD general-purpose CPUs in contemporary desktops and laptops, it functions only as a fallback path for scenarios that the faster hardwired control unit is unable to manage. Housed in special high-speed memory, microcode translates machine instructions, state machine data, or other input into sequences of detailed circuit-level operations. It separates the machine instructions from the underlying electronics, thereby enabling greater flexibility in designing and altering instructions. Moreover, it facilitates the construction of complex multi-step inst ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Clock Signal
In electronics and especially synchronous digital circuits, a clock signal (historically also known as ''logic beat'') is an electronic logic signal (voltage or current) which oscillates between a high and a low state at a constant frequency and is used like a metronome to synchronize actions of digital circuits. In a synchronous logic circuit, the most common type of digital circuit, the clock signal is applied to all storage devices, flip-flops and latches, and causes them all to change state simultaneously, preventing race conditions. A clock signal is produced by an electronic oscillator called a clock generator. The most common clock signal is in the form of a square wave with a 50% duty cycle. Circuits using the clock signal for synchronization may become active at either the rising edge, falling edge, or, in the case of double data rate, both in the rising and in the falling edges of the clock cycle. Digital circuits Most integrated circuits (ICs) of suffi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU). The IC is capable of interpreting and executing program instructions and performing arithmetic operations. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, Clock signal, clock-driven, Processor register, register-based, digital integrated circuit that accepts binary code, binary data as input, processes it according to instruction (computing), instructions stored in its computer memory, memory, and provides results (also in binary form) as output. Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and sequential logic, sequential digital logic, and operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary number system. The integration of a whole CPU on ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alpha Microsystems
Alpha Microsystems, Inc., often shortened to Alpha Micro, was an American computer company founded in 1977 in Costa Mesa, California, by John French, Dick Wilcox and Bob Hitchcock. During the dot-com bubble, dot-com boom, the company changed its name to AlphaServ, then NQL Inc., reflecting its pivot toward being a provider of Internet software. However, the company soon reverted to its original Alpha Microsystems name after the dot-com bubble burst. Products The first Alpha Micro computer was the S-100 bus, S-100 AM-100, based upon the WD16 microprocessor chipset from Western Digital. In April 1978, the two-board AM-100 was offered at $1,495 (). As of 1982, AM-100/L and the AM-1000 were based on the Motorola Motorola 68000, 68000 and succeeding processors, though Alpha Micro swapped several addressing lines to create byte-ordering compatibility with their earlier processor. Early peripherals included standard computer terminals (such models as Soroc, Hazeltine Corporation, H ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Q-Bus
The Q-bus, also known as the LSI-11 Bus, is one of several bus (computing), bus technologies used with Programmed Data Processor, PDP and VAX, MicroVAX computer systems previously manufactured by the Digital Equipment Corporation of Maynard, Massachusetts, Maynard, Massachusetts. The Q-bus is a less expensive version of Unibus using multiplexing so that address and data signals share the same wires. This allows both a physically smaller and less-expensive implementation of essentially the same functionality. Over time, the physical address range of the Q-bus was expanded from 16 to 18 and then 22 bits. Block transfer modes were also added to the Q-bus. Main features of the Q-bus The Q-bus is arranged as a series of Expansion card, modules installed in one or more Backplane, backplanes. Like the Unibus before it, the Q-bus uses: * ''Memory-mapped I/O'' * ''Byte addressing'' * A strict ''Master-slave (computers), master-slave'' relationship between devices on the bus * ''Asynchro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |