The Operation of a Microprocessor Within a PCS
The microprocessor has become the work horse of the modern electronics communication industry. A microprocessor generally refers to a CPU on a single silicon chip, but exceptions have been made when the CPU includes particularly interesting design ideas. The important characteristics of a microprocessor are the widths of its internal and external address bus and data bus and instruction, its clock rate, and its instruction set. A single chip microprocessor may include other components such as memory (RAM, ROM, PROM), memory management, caches, floating-point unit, input/output ports, and timers. Such devices are also known as microcontrollers (Glossary, 1995).
As integrated circuit densities have increased with the rapid development of integrated circuit manufacturing technology, the power and performance of microprocessors has also increased. These smaller microprocessors have relatively simple instruction sets, but they are nevertheless suitable as controllers for a very wide range of applications such as car engines and microwave ovens. The one-chip microcomputer is in many respects, a landmark development in computer technology because it reduces the computer to a small, inexpensive, and easily replaceable design component (Kempainen, 1996, 65-72).
Personal communications services (PCS) are one reason for the dynamic growth of the wireless communication market. PCS is used to designate wireless services, including telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and wireless PCs, that transmit signals at 1,900 MHz (cellular phones transmit at 850 MHz). The biggest advantage of PCS over the more familiar cellular phone is that PCS has built-in capabilities for digital data, larger displays, and user-friendly entry methods. In essence the PCS becomes a communications devise that verges on being a computer (Gilder, 1997).
There is currently hot competition between t...