What are microcontrollers
A microcontroller is a special chip designed to control various electronic devices. Microcontrollers first appeared in the same year as general-purpose microprocessors (1971). Developers of microcontrollers came up with an ingenious idea - to combine the processor, memory, ROM and peripherals inside one case, which looks like an ordinary microcircuit. Since then, the production of microcontrollers each year is many times higher than the production of processors, and the need for them does not decrease.
Microcontrollers produce dozens of companies, and not only modern 32-bit microcontrollers are manufactured, but also 16, and even 8-bit (like i8051 and analogs). Within each family, you can often find almost identical models, differing in the speed of the CPU and the amount of memory.
The fact is that microcontrollers are used mainly in embedded systems, in toys, in machine tools, in mass home appliances, in home automation - where not the processor power is needed, but rather the balance between price and sufficient functionality.
That is why the oldest types of microcontrollers are still in progress - they can do a lot: from automatic door opening and switching on lawn irrigation to integration into the smart home system. At the same time, there are more powerful microcontrollers capable of performing hundreds of millions of operations per second and tied with the periphery “to the teeth”. They have corresponding tasks. Thus, the developer first evaluates the task, and only then selects the appropriate hardware for it.
Today, there are more than 200 modifications of microcontrollers compatible with i8051, produced by two dozen companies, and a large number of other types of microcontrollers. 8-bit microcontrollers from Atch's PIC Microchip Technology and AVR, TI's 16-bit MSP430 microscopes, as well as 32-bit microcontrollers from ARM architecture developed by ARM Limited and selling licenses to other companies for their production are popular with developers.
The microcontroller is characterized by a large number of parameters, since it is simultaneously a complex software-controlled device and an electronic device (microcircuit). The prefix "micro" in the name of the microcontroller means that it is executed using microelectronic technology.
In the course of operation, the microcontroller reads commands from the memory or input port and executes them. What each command means is determined by the microcontroller command system. The command system is embedded in the microcontroller architecture and the execution of the command code is expressed in the execution of certain micro-operations by the internal elements of the chip.
Microcontrollers allow the flexibility to control various electronic and electrical devices. Some models of microcontrollers are so powerful that they can directly switch relays (for example, on Christmas tree lights).
Microcontrollers, as a rule, do not work alone, but are sealed into a circuit where, besides it, screens, keyboard inputs, various sensors, etc. are connected.
Software for microcontrollers can attract the attention of those who love to “chase after bits”, since usually the memory in microcontrollers ranges from 2 to 128 KB. If less, then you have to write in assembler or Forte, if possible, then use special versions of BASIC, Pascal, but mostly - C. Before the microcontroller is finally programmed, it is tested in software or hardware emulators.
MICROCONTROLLER is no longer a processor, but also not a computer.
The central processor available in each computer is the main calculator. Although the computer is not designed exclusively for the computational load, the processor is in it the head element. But not only the computer has a processor.
If you think about it and look, you can find that the processors are used in most household appliances. Only there are used not such processors as in the computer, but microprocessors and even microcontrollers.
So what is a microcontroller and what is different from the actual processor or is it completely different electronic components?
Large integrated circuits or microcircuits with a high degree of integration are processors. Microprocessors, essentially the same processors, but because of the prefix "micro", their essence is determined that they are smaller than their "big" counterparts. In its historical time, a processor with its size could occupy more than one room, it is fitting to call them like extinct dinosaurs macro processors, in order to somehow sort them in the modern concept of electronics.
Reduced in size and assembled processor takes up less space and can be placed in a more compact product, this is a microprocessor. But the processor itself has little to do except to transfer data between registers and perform some arithmetic and logical operations on them.
In order for the microprocessor to send data to memory, this same memory must be present either on the chip itself, on which the processor element itself is located, or connected to an external RAM made as a separate chip or module.
In addition to memory, the processor must interact with external devices - peripherals. Otherwise, what benefits can be expected from the work of the processor, mixing and moving data to and fro. Meaning occurs when the processor interacts with I / O devices. The computer has a keyboard, a mouse and display devices as a display, optionally a printer and, for example, a scanner, again for entering information.
To control I / O devices, the appropriate buffer schemes and elements are absolutely necessary. Based on them, interface so-called hardware is implemented. Methods of interaction with interface elements assume the presence of input-output port schemes, address decoders and bus drivers with buffer circuits to increase the microprocessor's load capacity.
Integration of the processor with all the necessary additional elements in order for this product to pour out into some kind of completed construct and leads to the formation of a microcontroller. A microcircuit or microcontroller chip implements a processor and interface circuits on a single chip.
A self-sufficient chip, which contains almost everything, so that this is enough for building a finished product, and there is an example of a typical microcontroller. For example, a wristwatch or alarm clock has a microcontroller inside that implements all the functions of such a device. Separate peripherals are connected directly to the legs of the microcontroller chip, or additional elements or microcircuits of small or medium integration are used together.
Microcontrollers are widely used in products that contain the entire system entirely in a single miniature chip, often called a micro assembly. For example, a "chip" credit card contains a microcontroller inside a plastic base. The tablet intercom also contains a microcontroller inside. And examples of the use and application of microcontrollers are so extensive in the modern world that it is easy to detect the presence of a controller in any more or less intelligent device from a children's toy to a wireless cell phone headset.
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