By the third quarter of 1978, ten Japanese companies wereproducing some 80 types of microprocessors, including 61 original

products. Both the rate of new product introductions and thedirections of these developments are impressive.

SPECIAL FEATUREMicroprocessors in Japan -

Status in 1978Ryoichi MoriUniversity of Tsukuba

Morihiko Tajima, Yoshikuni Okada, Hiroaki TajimaElectrotechnical Laboratory, Tokyo

As of mid-1978, Japanese microprocessors in- was also second-sourcing several widely used chips,cluded many original products, such as 4-bit micro- such as the Intel 8080A and the Motorola 6800controllers (most of which are single-chip micro- family. Since an earlier paper' by the same authorscomputers) and high-performance, general-purpose surveys microprocessors in Japan through the sec-microprocessors (both 12- and 16-bit). The industry ond quarter 1977, this discussion is focused mainly

on more recent products.

Four- and 8-bit original microprocessors

Table 1 lists original 4- and 8-bit microprocessorsmade in Japan; most are single-chip microcom-

M ~ ~ I puters. Among these, three chips illustrate thex4 1 directions of product development: SM-4, a very ear-

ly single-chip microcomputer; M58840, the firstmicrocomputer containing an A-D converter; and1_COM-83, a multiprocessor-oriented, single-chipmicrocomputer.

_ < i_STACK_____ The SM-4 was the first CMOS single-chip micro-coputer in Japan. The chip has two stages of four

DI mIDE 9-bit shift registers and a 1 5-bit frequency divider.AC' j 1 ' _ Figure 1 shows the architecture. H1 to H3 can take

*~| three values: GND, Vm, and Vd, which can be used to_ | |W |_ drive liquid-crystal displays. With its very low

_F | |a|p| K | |power consumption, the SM-4 is suitable for applica-tions which require a combination of precise timingand battery operation.Mitsubishi has developed a new single-chip

microcomputer, the M58840, which features analoginput ports. In Figure 2, 2K of 8-bit ROM and 128words of 4-bit RAM are shown on the device. The42-pin DIP is made by a P-channel, aluminum-gate

Figure 1. The Sharp SM-4 chip has two stages of 9-bit EDMOS process. Its 15 analog input ports can beshift registers and a 15-bit frequency-divider. Three directly connected to touchkey interfaces andvalues of H (GND, Vm, and Vd) are suitable for driving various sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure,liquid-crystal displays. velocity, etc.).

0018-9162/79/0500-0058$00.75 © 1979 IEEE58 COMPUTER

The on-chip A-D converter consists of a bit-selectregister, C; reference-voltage registers H-L; a D-Aconverter; the 15-port input register J, and 15 com-parators (Figure 3). The A-D conversion is per-formed by a program which specifies C and H-L.

The chip facilitates two algorithms: the successivecomparison method and the follow-up comparisonmethod. With the successive comparison method,required conversion time is about 0.6 msec. The chipis used in products which are controlled by analog

Table 1.Original 4- and 8-bit microprocessors made in Japan.

MANUFACTURER TEC.

Fujitsu NMOSFujitsu NMOSFujitsu NMOSFujitsu NMOSFujitsu NMOS

Hitachi PMOSHitachi PMOSHitachi CMOSHitachi PMOSHitachi PMOS

Matsushita NMOSMatsushita NMOSMatsushita NMOSMatsushita NMOSMatsushita NMOSMatsushita PMOSMatsushita PMOSMatsushita PMOSMatsushita CMOSMatsushita CMOSMatsushita CMOSMatsushita NMOSMatsushita NMOSMatsushita NMOSMatsushita N-MOSMatsushita NMOSMatsushita NMOS

Mitsubishi PMOSMitsubishi PMOSMitsubishi PMOS

NEC NMOSNEC PMOSNEC PMOSNEC PMOSNEC PMOSNEC PMOSNEC PMOSNEC NMOSNEC PMOSNEC NMOS

OKI CMOSOKI CMOSOKI CMOSOKI CMOSOKI CMOS

SHARP PMOSSHARP PMOSSHARP PMOSSHARP CMOSSHARP CMOS

Toshiba NMOSToshiba NMOSToshiba NMOSToshiba NMOSToshiba NMOSToshiba NMOSToshiba CMOSToshiba CMOS

ROM

2KB2KB1KB1KB

512x1 01Kxl01Kxl02KxlO2KxlO

1KB768B51 2B512B2KB1KB768B2KB1KB51 2B2KB

2KB4KB

2Kx91 Kx9

1920x102KB1KB640B1KB4Kxl02032x1 22KB

2KB1KB768B512B

882B1KB2KB2KB1792B

256x24*1KB1536B2KB

2KB3KB

RAM

1 28x4128x464x464x4128x4

32x480x480x4160x41 6x4

64x432x41 6x41 6x4128x464x432x4128x464x41 6x4128x464x464x4128x41 28x4256x4

128x464x4128x4

96x496x464x432x464x432x4160x496B128x464x432x41 6x464x4

48x464x41 28x496x465x4

16B48x464x41 28x4128x498x4160x4

REMARKS

evaluation chip

max mem. cap. 4KW, counter/timer

with serial l/0, counter/timer

counter/timercounter/timer

evaluation chipevaluation chipevaluation chip8 bit arith., 2 ps min inst. timecounter/timerevaluation chip of MN1542 & MN1544

with AD converterwith AD converterevaluation chip

counter/timer

with 6 bit AD convertercounter/timercounter/timer8 bit, multiprocessor facility, x/ inst., counter/timer

evaluation chip

12 input pins, 37 output pins

8- bit controller, *microprogram, serial i/0TMP-4310TMP-431 5TM P-4320TMP-4300, evaluation chipTCP-4620TCP-4630

May 1979

MODEL

M B8841MB8842MB8843M B8844MB8849HMCS42HMCS43H MCS43CHMCS44HMCS45MN1400MN1402MN1403MN1 404MN1405MN1430MN1432MN1435MN 1450MN1 453MN1455MN1498MN1499MN1499AMN1542MN1544MN1 599M58840PM58841 PM58842S

pCOM4,uCOM41*COM42

,uCOM43JCOM44jCOM45,uCOM46ICOM47*COM48p4COM83OLMS-40OLMS-41OLMS-42OLMS-43OLMS-44SM-1SM-2SM-3SM-4SM-5TLCS-41T3444TLCS-43TLCS-43TLCS-43TLCS-43TLCS-46TLCS-46

59

input signals-microwave ovens, air conditioners,washing machines, office copiers, sewing machines,and similar applications.The HCOM-83, developed by NEC, is an 8-bit

single-chip microcomputer with 2K bytes of ROM,96 bytes of RAM, 28 I/O lines, and a timer/counter.With its hardware multiply/divide facility, it hasmore processing power than conventional single-chip microcomputers. Up to eight MCOM-83 chipscan be combined to form multimicroprocessor sys-tems with shared memory and I1/O.Bus arbitration is performed as follows: When a

processor is ready to access the common memory, itchecks the BB (bus busy). If the BB is ON, the pro-

cessor waits till BB changes to OFF. If the BB isOFF, the processor turns the BB ON and reads thebus to verify that no other processor with higherpriority is requesting the bus. If there are no otherprocessors with higher priority, the processor ad-dresses the bus; otherwise, it checks BB again. Thebus is thus dedicated to a using processor until theprocessor is no longer on the line.An example of the dual multiprocessor system ap-

pears in Figure 4, where two processors share amemory-I/O chip, iPD8156, which includes 256bytes of RAM, 22 I/Os, and a timer/counter. In addi-tion to the bus arbitration facility, iCOM-83 hastwo registers, QA and QB, for interprocessor com-munication. Terminal QS provides access to theseregisters.

Original 12- and 16-bit microprocessors

Table 2 compares five kinds of 12- and 16-bitoriginal microprocessors. The most advanced ofthese is the 1ACOM-1600, developed by NEC. Themain features of this 16-bit, high-performancemicroprocessor are:

* high performance, i.e., minimum instructionexecution time of 0.6 jsec;

* directly addressable memory capacity, 512Kwords (lM bytes) and 2048 I/Os;

Figure 2. Mitsubishi's M58840 is a 4-bit, one-chip micro-processor in a 42-pin DIP package. The construction isP-channel, aluminum-gate EDMOS technology.

Figure 3. The 15-port A-D converter of the M58840 suits the chipfor a wide variety of transducer outputs.

Figure 4. Several ,iCOM-83 chips can be combined into amultiprocessor system sharing a ;PD-8156 memory.

COMPUTER60

Table 2.12-16 bit original microprocessors.

A\ Op 0o FS1;*\Z z \1~~~~~~~~~tINTERFACE CHIP

4~ .\q$% '

%Q , ~~

.^pGOM-80 I/l chips can be used.

* two sets of seven general registers;* on-chip dynamic RAM-refresh control circuit;* easy multiprocessor configuration (common

bus, master/slave);* a 6.7-MHz single clock and a single 5V power

source;* a 64-pin flat package (includes 20 address pins

and 16 data I/O pins);* 17-bit on-chip timer and SAR (STOP address

register), which monitors the address bus toproduce a trigger pulse if the SAR coincideswith the address bus.

In Figure 5, a typical multiprocessor configura-tion using the jCOM-1600 appears. If the SLV pinof a particular processor is high, that processorbecomes the master; otherwise, it is the slave. To ac-

cess the common bus, the slave processor queriesthe master via COMRQ, then awaits the COMAK(common acknowledge) from the master. Theseoperations are hardwired into the equipment. Thelower 64K bytes of memory are assigned to localmemory, and the remaining partsb are part of thecommon memory. The I/O device-address is similar-ly divided into internal and external parts.

In addition to manufacturing original productssuch as these, Japanese semiconductor manufac-turers second-source the Intel 8080A and 8085, theMotorola 6800 family, the Zilog Z80, the AMD2900, Rockwell PPS04, and Fairchild F8. For some

of these, the Japanese products are direct replace-ments; in other cases, the Japanese versions areupgraded ones (Table 3).

Training kits and personal computers

Among the more recent product contributions areseveral kits and boards especially designed for train-

ing purposes (see Table 4). Toshiba's EX-80 andSharp's SMB-80T are newly introduced examplesbased on the 8080A and Z-80, respectively. Mat-sushita's KX-33 and Sharp's MZ-40K are elemen-tary kits for training boys and girls; kit technologyuses 4-bit microprocessors.

Figure 5. The master-slave configuration aCOM-1 600 is apair of chips arbitrated by queries and enabling com-mands via the COMRQIDMARQ and COMAK/DMAAKlines.

May 1979

pCOM16 NEC 75 N 2 -5 0.4 -10 42 2/2 1 1 4 Y Y_5 70

____ _____ 2_L-16A PANAFACOM 75 N 12 1.2 -10 40 2/2 3 3 33 Y _ Y

5 70-3

TLCS-12A TOSHIBA 75 P 1 -5 0.5 -20 36 12 8 7 108 V V V Y V5 80 /1 I I7 I0 I8 _ I I

T-40L TOSHIBA 76 N 5 5 1.3 0 42 3.3 5 2 17VY70 /1

MCOM-1600 NEC 78 N 1 5 64 6.7 4 0.6 8

*card level

61

Table 3.Second sources.

ORIGINAL SECOND SOURCES

MCS-48 NEC (sxCOM84), Fujitsu (MB8881)MCS-80 NEC (pCOM80), Mitsubishi (MELPS-8),

OKI (MSM3900), Toshiba (TLCS-80A)MCS-85 NEC (HCOM85), Mitsubishi (M58712S),

OKI, Toshiba (TLCS-85)Z80 SHARP (LHOO80), NEC (JACOM82)MC6800 Hitachi (HMCS6800), Fujitsu (MB8861)MC6802PPS-4PPS-8

Hitachi (HMCS 6802), Fujitsu (MB8871)SHARP (PPS-4, PPS-4/1, PPS-4/2)SHARP (PPS-8)

F-8 SANYO (3850)Am2900 NEC (tACOM2900)

Many manufacturers have begun to supply expan-sion boards and keyboards for kits in order tofacilitate programming (in Basic) and to utilize colortv. For instance, NEC's TK-80BS, which is thesuperset of TK-80, has a keyboard, a tv interface, anaudio cassette interface (Kansas City standard), anda Basic interpreter in mask ROM.One of the more significant developments this

year has been the advent of personal computers inJapan. Though the definition is somewhat loose, themachines share some common features:

* The cost is less than V1,000,000 (or $5000).* Basic is the standard language.* CRT display is the standard output device.* Cassette magnetic tape or minifloppy disk can

be used.* A graphic character set is included.

Examples of Japanese technology in this field in-clude the SORD M200 and M100, the PanafacomC-1, and Hitachi's MB-6880.The SORD M200 series consists of seven models:

M220, M222, M230, M240, M250, M270, and M280.Each of these is oriented toward a special applica-tion area. Maximum memory capacity is 65K bytes.One minifloppy disk is standard, and an additionaltwo disks can be used. A high-speed serial printer,

Figure 6. The SORD M100 series is designed for game-playing applications. Its features include an S-100 businterface.

XY plotter-printer, and PTR/PTP are available op-tions. Some I/O modules are supplied, and the S-100bus was adopted as standard. The system also in-cludes extended Basic, Fortran, and assembler soft-ware.The M100 series is a game-oriented group, in-

cluding the M100, M120, M170, and M180. Themost powerful, the M180, has a 16K-byte standardmemory, a tv controller for a 64-character X 23-line

Table 4.Training kits and boards.

MODEL MANUFACTURER PROCESSOR PROGRAM INPUT REMARKS

TK-80 NEC mPD8080A hexadecimal keyTK-80BS NEC TK-80 full key (Basic) TV outputEX-5 Toshiba TLCS-12A binary switch option: hexadecimal keyEX-80 Toshiba TLCS-80A hexadecimal key TV interfaceLKIT-16 Panafacom L-16A key (assembler) option: Basic, color TVLKIT-8 Fujitsu MN8861 hexadecimal keyH68/TR Hitachi HMCS6800 tiny full key (assembler) option: TV, BasicKX-33 Matsushita MN1400 hexadecimal (music) sensors, speakerMZ-40K SHARP IX0036 hexadecimal keySMB-BOT SHARP Z80 hexadecimal keyINPEC-85AP Hasshin i8085 pen touch key (assembler)

COMPUTER

X: UPPER 4 bits Y: LOWER 4 bitsXlol2 3T4 567T68 9 rABCDEFWWo-o- W 71DWIAL

3r El AMIIIlio2~~_0l XHlIIEl2 [i3E

3 WLW3ILSW WL Wsj WLt I4 D47DFT[d][t][_[O]DETL0E E

C

8 ?5hmE]F3x11]E[uPNl[j3779 oYM-T1*E1~F1L9FW[WXSLIA NP*sD5FQHF*_1[_ T_::1EKE[il{il1

D V[l E]NPY7I3i 1LX>

Figure 7. The MB-6880 includes Japanese kana in acharacter set that can be displayed on a home tvreceiver.

display, a 12-inch B&W tv, an audio cassette inter-face (1200 baud), an audio cassette, two-channel X8-bit ADCs (with a joystick), a digital,clock, a powersupply, digital I/Os (with relay drivers and photo-couplers), a speaker, a full keyboard (with graphicpatterns and Japanese kana), a printer interface, anRS-232C interface, and an S-100 bus interface(Figure 6). With features such as these, the series isapplicable to computer games.

The Panxafacom C-15 is oriented toward such ap-plications as scientific calculation, measurement,and control, rather than toward home or hobby use.Three types of functions can be added to adapt theC-15 to these applications. Extra 16K RAM andBasic with matrix operations can be added toenhance calculator capability, and an IEC bus inter-face (64 inputs, 64 outputs) is available for controlfunctions.

Well-equipped software libraries include threesets of special characters, which can display pic-tures, diagrams, and formulas; the C-15 hardwareincludes a keyboard with capacitive touch keys, aCRT display, a tape cassette, and an optional ther-mal printer.

Hitachi's MB-6880 is designed for hobby andtraining applications, rather than for professionaluses. The system consists of a keyboard, a cassetteinterface (Kansas City standard), a video interface,and a speaker for music, etc. An optional characterdisplay is available, and the unit can use home tvsets. The Basic for this machine even has a specialcommand, MUSIC, which enables it to play music.The character set, shown in Figure 7, is rich, reflect-ing the broad and rapidly expanding range of ap-plications and users today. M

Reference

1. R. Mori, H. Tajima, M. Tajima, and Y. Okada,"Microprocessors in Japan," Euromicro Newsletter,Vol. 3, No. 4, 1977, pp. 50-57

Ryoichi Mori is professor of the In-stitute of Electronics and InformationSciences of the Unviersity of Tsukuba,Ibaraki-ken, Japan. Until May 1978,he was with the Electrotechnical Labo-ratory of the Ministry of InternationalTrade and Industry, Tokyo. He haspublished a number of technicalpapers and books on microprocessorsand computer systems, and has

several patents of these areas.Mori received his BE and PhD degrees from the Univer-

sity of Tokyo in 1953 and 1962, respectively. He is amember of the Information Processing Society of Japan,the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers ofJapan, and the Institute of Electronics and Communica-tion Engineers of Japan. He is a director of Euromicro. Hehas been chairman of the Microcomputer TechnologyCommittee of JEIDA and chairman of the Special In-terest Group on Microcomputers of IPSJ.

Morihiko Tajima, a research officer ofthe Electrotechnical Laboratory,Tokyo, is currently engaged in re-search involving parallel processingsystems and game theory. He receivedthe BS degree from the University ofTokyo in 1969.

Yoshikuni Okada is a research officerof the Electrotechnical Laboratory,Tokyo. Most recently he has beenengaged in research and developmentof the parallel processing system ETLANMX Okada received the BS andMS degrees from Nagoya Universityin 1965 and 1967, respectively.

Hiroaki Tajima is engaged in researchand development of the parallel pro-cessing system ETL ANMA at theElectrotechnical Laboratory, Tokyo.Tajima is a member of the Institute ofElectronics and Communication Engi-neers of Japan.

May t979 63