Advances in Microcomputer Development Systems

The advent of the microprocessor has enabled designers to prove that they can now perform the same tasks previously accomplished with TTL or minicomputers but at the same time achieve much greater product complexity. Thus, results are not simply products that replace old ones with greater cost effectiveness, but ones which incorporate a magnitude of new features. The next generations of product design after the conversion to microprocessors will be characterized largely by a mastery of reconfiguration of memory and peripherals. However, a key problem that will remain in configuring microcomputer systems is the generation of microcomputer software and, in particular, its integration with the microcomputer hardware. Designers of first-generation microprocessor systems were often disturbed by their inability to significantly reduce the design and development time and indeed the cost of the product. The microprocessor-based system design learning curve was at least as steep as that of TTL design. The microprocessor represents a new logic family which requires new tools for development, because both hardware and software are required simultaneously for generation of the logic.