Microcontroller

A microcontroller is a compact microcomputer designed to govern the operation of embedded systems in motor vehicles, robots, office machines, complex medical devices, mobile radio transceivers, vending machines, home appliances, and various other devices. A typical microcontroller includes a processor, memory, and peripherals.

 i) A microcontroller basically contains one or more following components:

§   Central processing unit(CPU)

§   Random Access Memory)(RAM)

§   Read Only Memory(ROM)

§   Input/output ports

§   Timers and Counters

§   Interrupt Controls

§   Analog to digital converters

§   Digital  analog converters

§   Serial interfacing ports

§   Oscillatory circuits

ii) A microcontroller internally consists of all features required for a computing system and functions as a computer without adding any external digital parts in it.

iii) Most of the pins in the microcontroller chip can be made programmable by the user.

iv) A microcontroller has many bit handling instructions that can be easily understood by the programmer.

v) A microcontroller is capable of handling Boolean functions.

vi) Higher speed and performance.

vii) On-chip ROM structure in a microcontroller provides better firmware security.

viii) Easy to design with low cost and small size.