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Microprocessor Systems Question Paper

Microprocessor Systems

Course:Diploma In Computer Studies (Computer Studies)

Institution: Kenya Polytechnic question papers

Exam Year:2006

1 (a) Distinguish the following terms:
(i) Microprocessor
(ii) Microcomputer
(iii) Microcontroller (3marks)
(b) (i) Draw a block diagram of a microprocessor based system with bus architecture.
(ii) Explain the functions of each of the components in b(i). (12marks)
(c) Explain the purpose of the following Intel 8085 microprocessor control signals.
(i) WR
(ii) CLK OUT
(iii)10/M
(iv) RESET IN
(v) ALE (5marks)

2 (a) An 8 bit microprocessor with a 16-bit address bus requires PROM space of 4K bytes and RAM spaces of 16K bytes, occupying a continuous space.
Draw the memory map of the system. (5marks)
(b) The instruction 10111111 (BFH) is stored in memory location 2005H.Illustrate the data flow and list the sequence of events when the instruction code is fetched by the microprocessor. (7marks)
(c)(i) State ONE advantage and ONE disadvantage of dynamic RAM over the static RAM.
(ii) With the aid of a circuit diagram explain the operation of a MOS dynamic RAM cell. (8marks)

3 (a) Explain why direct memory Access is preferred in transferring blocks of data than either the programmable or the interrupt input/output methods. (4marks)
(b) Three peripheral devices-keyboard, hard disk and printer-are to be interfaced to a microprocessor. With the aid of a diagram explain how this is achieved with daisy chain and how it works while taking into account the prioritization that, keyboard has the highest priority, followed by hard disk and least priority being the printer (8marks)
(c) (i) Write a program that will generate a triangular waveform, assuming that an 8-bit digital to analogue converter (DAC) is connected to port A of p10 which is in turn addressed as 21H.
(ii) Draw an illustration of the output waveform produced by the program in c(i) (6marks)
(e) Explain any TWO advantages of using a programmable timer device. (2marks)

4 (a) (i) State TWO methods of passing parameters to a subroutine
(ii) Illustrating how the stack memory is affected, describe the sequence of events occur when CALL and RETURN instructions are executed. (7marks)
(b) With the aid of a flow chart, write an assembly language program to transfer two pages of data from one memory area to another. Take the source starting address as 2000H and destination starting address as 6000H.Include as necessary. (13marks)

5 (a) Distinguish between the following pairs of Intel 8085 instructions. State the addressing mode of each.
(i) DAB B and ADC B
(ii) XRA M and XCHG (8marks)
(b) With the aid of a flowchart write a program that checks a set of six signed numbers and adds the positive numbers. The numbers are stored in memory locations starting from xx60H.The final result is expected to be less than FFH and stored in location xx70H.Use Intel 8085 assembly language instructions. (12marks)

6.(a) (i) Explain the functions of a loader in software development systems.
(ii) Outline THREE types of loaders. (8marks)
(b) (i) State any TWO advantages of assembly language programming.
(ii) With the aid of a flow chart explain the microprocessor software development cycle. (12marks)

7.(a) State any TWO advantages of weighted resistor over R-LR ladder network of an analogue-to-Digital converter. (2marks)
(b) With the aid of a block diagram explain the principle of operation of a successive approximation analogue to digital converter (ADC).(6marks)
(c)Determine the equivalent digital word which results from a 3.217V input to a 5-bit Analogue-to-Digital converter with a 5V reference using the successive approximation technique. (8marks)
(d) Out FOUR typical functions of an 1/0. (4marks)

8 (a) (i) Define the term "signature analysis".
(ii) Using exclusive OR gates and a 16 bit register draw a simplified model of a signature analyzer.
(iii) Write an assembly subroutine that carries out a test on a single RAM memory location to check whether it is okay or not (8marks)
(b) Explain the use of in-circuit emulator (ICE) hardware in the development of a microprocessor-based system. (6marks)
(c)A bar code scanner scans the boxes being shipped from the loading dock and records all the codes in computer memory; the end of the data is indicated by the byte 00.The code 1010001(A3H) is assigned to 19" television sets.
Write a program to count the number of 19" television sets that were shipped from the following data set.
Data (H) FA, 67, A3, B8, A3, A3, FA, 00. (6marks)

Microprocessor Systems Question Paper

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