1) A microprocessor is a central processing unit built on a single integrated circuit. It performs basic operations like addition and logical operations and can move data from one location to another.
2) A basic microcomputer system consists of an input/output unit, memory unit, and a microprocessor. The microprocessor fetches instructions from memory, decodes them, and executes them to provide output.
3) Microprocessors have evolved from 4-bit to 8-bit to 16-bit to 32-bit and now 64-bit. Early microprocessors like the Intel 4004 had only a few thousand transistors whereas modern 64-bit microprocessors can have over a billion transistors and execute billions of instructions per second.