The Pentium 3 was a microprocessor released by Intel in 1999. It was the successor to the Pentium 2 and was the first Pentium-branded processor to be based on the Intel P6 microarchitecture. The Pentium 3 was succeeded by the Pentium 4 in 2000. The Pentium 3 was the first processor to include the Intel … Read more
A printed circuit board, or PCB, is a self-contained module of interconnected electronic components found in devices ranging from common household appliances to sophisticated computers and industrial control systems. The circuits are formed by a thin layer of conductive material deposited, or “printed,” on the surface of an insulating board known as the substrate. PCBs … Read more
A context switch is the process of storing and restoring the state of a CPU so that multiple processes can share a single CPU. This allows a process to be interrupted in the middle of its execution and for another process to be executed in its place. When the first process is ready to resume … Read more
A reconfigurable processor is a type of microprocessor that can be reconfigured to perform different types of operations. This type of processor is typically used in applications where the needs of the application change over time, or where the application requires a high degree of customization. Reconfigurable processors are typically designed with a hardware description … Read more
True multitasking is the ability of an operating system to run more than one program at the same time. Each program is given a certain amount of time to run, called a time slice, before the operating system switches to another program. This allows the programs to appear to be running at the same time, … Read more
In computer science, predication is a technique for optimizing code performance by reducing the number of branches that are executed. Predication can be used to improve the performance of code that contains conditional branches, by reducing the number of times the branch is executed. For example, if a conditional branch is only taken 50% of … Read more
A microprocessor is a logic chip that contains the circuitry necessary to interpret and execute instructions from a microprogram. A microprocessor typically contains an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a control unit, and a number of registers. Which logic is mostly used in microprocessor chip? The most common logic used in microprocessor chips is called “combinational … Read more
The Intel 4004 is a 4-bit microprocessor released by Intel in 1971. It was the first microprocessor to be commercially available, and is considered to be the first microprocessor to be a “general-purpose” microprocessor, meaning it was designed to be used for a variety of applications. The 4004 was designed by a team of engineers … Read more
A Langmuir-Blodgett film is a very thin film of material that has been deposited on a substrate using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. This technique involves depositing material onto a water surface, and then using an electric field to control the deposition of the material onto a substrate. The thickness of the film can be controlled by … Read more
Xeon is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed for use in servers and workstations. They are manufactured by Intel. The Xeon brand was introduced in June 1998, with the release of the Pentium II Xeon CPU. The name “Xeon” was taken from the Greek word for “north star”. Xeon processors are based on the same … Read more
