Processors are a result of all those and, or, nor, etc. gates put together in a special way. The gates are made up of small usually silicon transistors and work together to perform different operations. There are so many different types and designs, what I am saying about them aren’t always true.
Basic Stamp:
In my senior research project I used the Basic Stamp 2-SX and the Basic Stamp 2p. Both of the Basic Stamps are manufactured by Parallax, Inc. “The Basic Stamps are small computers that run PBasic (Parallax Basic) programs. They have fully programmable I/O (input/output) pins that can be used to directly interface to TTL-level devices, such as buttons, LEDs, speakers, potentiometers, and shift registers.” (Getting Started). This thumbprint-sized microcontroller is very popular among robot enthusiasts, electronic and computer engineers, and certain science instructors looking for a fast, inexpensive alternative to microprocessor-based systems. The Basic Stamp runs programs downloaded into the Stamp form a computer. Once programmed, the Stamp holds the program in permanent memory. The instructions are converted to code, which the microcontroller can understand. An example would be an instruction given to the Stamp telling it to turn on an LED (light emitting diode) and then maybe moving forward two feet. There are several deferent kinds of Basic Stamps, the Basic Stamp (“BSI”), Basic Stamp 2 (“BSII”), Basic Stamp 2-SX, and the Basic Stamp 2p. The physical layout of the Basic Stamp 2-SX and the Basic Stamp 2p are designed to fit 24 pin and 40 pin IC holders respectively. The Basic Stamp 2-SX comes equipped with sixteen I/O lines, a 5 volt regulator, 50 MHz resonator, an interpreter chip and memory. “The Basic Stamp uses two kinds of memory: EEPROM (electronically erasable programmable read-only memory) and RAM . The EEPROM memory is used to store the PBasic interpreter and programs; the RAM is used to store data while a PBasic program is running.”(McComb 482). The EEPROM is non-volatile, which means if the power is removed the contents stored in the chip remain there. The RAM has volatile memory, which means the contents are lost if power is removed. The Basic Stamp 2-SX has 16 K bytes of EEPROM (program storage) and 64 bytes of RAM (for variables and data). Of those sixty-four bytes, one is used for the program and sixty-three for the user.
If you want something that is easy to use, yet mildly powerful, the Basic StampX is a great processor! The language isn't difficult to learn and if you buy a programing board with it, it is even easier to use.
Intel 8052:
Underconstruction!!!!!!!!!!
This came out of my research paper (sorry if it is borring):
