How Many Types Of Microprocessor Are There?

There are three main types of microprocessors; these tiny units give computers their "brain". Within a typical silicon microprocessor, there will be scores of tiny transistors and extremely small components. All of these parts are used to help a computer function as intended.

Types Of Microprocessors

• The first type of microprocessor is a basic model that is used for most "everyday" computer applications, including laptops, PC's, Macs, smartphones and regular cellphones.

•  The second type of microprocessor is a more involved model that is used for industrial purposes - this sort of unit is called a microcontroller. Designed to interact with industrial machines and computers, this sort of intuitive microprocessor is more complex, and more expensive to produce.

• The third type of computer microprocessor is a data signaling unit that is used for performing complex equations and algorithms. These specialized types of microprocessors are meant for use in complicated data transmission.

To get the most out of computers and complex machines, designers choose the right microprocessor for the job. Basic units are sold in bulk and used in almost any computerized device; however, complex types of microprocessors are chosen for specialized tasks that require more power and capability.

Learning about computers will be easier when a student or interested person decides to study computer science. By understanding how a computer is made, and what each type of computer is used for, a person can gain a greater overall knowledge of how microprocessors are made, installed, and used.

Libraries often carry books about computers, and almost any college or university will offer courses in computer science and computer programming. However, technology is constantly changing; luckily, the internet provides an excellent resource for learning about developments in microprocessors. Computer buffs often use their knowledge to create their own computer systems (with microprocessors) from scratch.

Processors mainly have two parameters: width of microprocessor and speed. Speed is calculated in Megahertz (MHz).The width of the processor can be expressed in the form of Internal Register, I/O bus and memory address bus. Microprocessor has different types; Intel processor, AMD, Cyrix, NexGen, IDT, Rise Processors.

Intel processor that belongs to the First Generation of Processors is 8088, 8086, 80186, 80188, and 8087. Intel processors 286, 80287 belong to Second Generation of Processors.

Third Generation microprocessor are 386SX, 386SL, 386DX. AMD 486 (5x86), Cyrix/TI. 486, 486SX, 486SX2, 487SX, 486SL, 486SL2, 486DX, 486DX2, 486DX4 belongs to the Fourth Generation of Microprocessor. Other different types of microprocessor are 486Pentium OD, Pentium 60/66, Pentium 75–200, Pentium MMX, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium II PE, Celeron, Celeron A, Celeron III, Pentium III, Pentium IIIE, Pentium Xeon, Pentium IIIE Xeon, AMD K5, AMD K6, AMD K6-2, AMD K6-3, AMD Athlon, AMD Duron, AMD Athlon 4 (Thunderbird), AMD Athlon 64 and 64 FX,Cyrix 6x8, Cyrix 6x86MX/MII, Cyrix III, NexGen Nx586, IDT Winchip, IDT Winchip2/2A.

Based on bit of operation at a time  8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, 64bit (now days) and etcSo far I know, they are Laptop, Desktop, Server and Embedded processors, for example Laptop- Intel Centrino, Desktop- Intel Pentium, Server- Intel Xeon, Atom, Embedde- ARM and classification of microprocessor considering instruction sets they process:
RISC - Reduced instruction set computing (oven, AC etc.) CISC - Complex instruction set computing (eg. Laptop, desktop processor)...

Types of Microprocessors according to there emergence are

Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC)

Where most of the work is to perform by Microprocessor itself, the philosophy reduced the Line of Codes or instruction and burden processor to perform most of the task. CISC architecture was first used by Digital Equipment Corporation PDP 11 family of minicomputers.

Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC)

Where most of the work is to perform by the software itself, the load on a processor is very low and hence it is called future processors. The RISC architecture was used by Apple Corporation's Macintosh computers, IBM's RISC System/6000 workstations and Sun Microsystems's SPARC.

Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW)

In this architecture a compiler breaks instruction into basic operations to be performed by processor. VLIW is the next step of RISC. In this philosophy complication is moved from the hardware to the software so it reduces the hardware cost.

Superscalar Processors

They are competent of performing more than one instruction in each cycle. In this philosophy concept of cache, parallel processing and floating point were introduced.
Few other are
General Purpose Processor (GPP)
Special Purpose Processor (SPP)
Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)
Application-Specific Instruction-set Processor (ASIP)
Digital Signal Processor (DSP)

Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC)
– large number of complex addressing modes
– many versions of instructions for different operands
– different execution times for instructions
– few processor registers
– microprogrammed control logic

Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC)
– one instruction per clock cycle
– memory accesses by dedicated load/store instructions
– few addressing modes
– hard-wired control logic

In regards to Vibrant's answerKeep in mind that CISC architecture is constantly growing as new media instructions are added and new tasks are developed for computers.  This makes the whole library of instructions much larger than originally planned and causes much more bottlenecking as the appropriate instructions must be selected.  RISC has always scaled to meet the requirements of computing that CISC has always achieved. VLIW is more than just a philosophy, it was originally developed by Transmeta (now AMD) that was used in conjunction with a software northbridge built around code morphing technology.  VLIW was not RISC technology at all, rather it allowed for 4 or 8 CISC instructions to be morphed into a single VLIW instruction so that the processor could run it over a single cycle.  The only processors that have ever supported VLIW, were Transmeta's own 128bit crusoe and 256 bit efficeon.  It would seem ideal that you could perform 4 32 bit instructions on a single cycle as opposed to just 1, but since the northbridge was a software based emulation of a hardware solution, huge performance gains would not be realized.  Additionally, software operating systems were never built around this new architecture so the operating systems could not realize the full potential of VLIW computing.  To make matters worst, Transmeta's processors were unable to achieve the high clockspeeds of the processors of its age with the crusoe maxing out at 1.0ghz and efficeon processors maxing out at 1.6ghz.  So despite its very wide buses it could not compete with the big dog names of microprocessing as far as performance.