What are the Differences Between an Integrated Circuit and a Microprocessor

What Is an Integrated Circuit?

An integrated circuit is a piece of a semiconductor chip that houses thousands to billions of transistors in it. It’s probably hard to imagine how this is possible, but it’s not shrinking down scores of typical 3-legged NPN transistors. 

Instead, an integrated circuit is built by putting together the basic structure of MOS transistors on a small piece of a silicon wafer. The MOS transistors are connected in a way that achieves the same functionality of a larger setup. 

You can trace back the origin of the integrated circuit to the 1960s. The idea of shrinking circuits to thumb-size was a popular one. This is because it saves cost, space, and changes how electronics are designed over the years.

Today, you can’t help but find integrated circuits in every electronics gadget and product. An integrated circuit can be as simple as an analog multiplexer, or it could be as advanced as an ethernet transceiver. 

What Is a Microprocessor?

A microprocessor is an integrated circuit, but not all integrated circuits are microprocessors. Just like Professor X, the microprocessor is an intelligent piece of integrated circuits. It forms the brain of circuits that require computing capability. 

The earliest microprocessor had thousands of transistors on the silicon wafer, but the number has reached billions in the present. The AMD Epyc Rome, which was released in 2019, has over 39 billion transistors in the chip. 

Unlike other integrated circuits, a microprocessor functions as a computing brain. It is able to process logical and arithmetic instructions that are programmed into it. A microprocessor consists of an arithmetical and logic unit (ALU), a control unit, and a register array. 

For most consumers, a microprocessor is often associated with the CPU of a computer. But the usage of microprocessors extends past PCs, smartphones, and laptops. Microprocessors are also developed as graphic processor units (GPU). 

In commercial electronics, microprocessors are fueling the growth of single-board computers, like the Raspberry Pi. And, there’s the microcontroller, which is a combination of a microprocessor with memory and I/O peripherals in a single chip.

How Integrated Circuits and Microprocessors Advance Embedded Systems

Integrated circuits have paved the way to the advanced embedded systems we know and use today. The semiconductor chips that are used in devices like smartphones, tablets, or laptop computers are all integrated circuits that provide the system with the electronic circuitry needed to perform its intended function.

Microprocessors specifically are fundamental integrated circuits that embedded system engineers often use in embedded designs. The microprocessor is used to control the CPU functions of an embedded system, which performs tasks like retrieving and decoding instructions from the main memory, and using those instructions to carry out arithmetic and logic operations for other memory or I/O devices.

This article is excerpted from https://resources.pcb.cadence.com/blog/2020-microprocessor-vs-integrated-circuit-what-s-the-difference

https://www.totalphase.com/blog/2020/12/differences-between-integrated-circuit-microprocessor/

Thanks to the author for popularizing our knowledge of integrated circuits