Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="lankavee" data-source="post: 4778188" data-attributes="member: 194046">Have I missed something…   What is the difference between a microprocessor (found in my pc) and microcontrollers? You would ask.  Microprocessor is intend to process signals (Data) in large chunks at very high speeds, with the help of external sub-systems such as memory, storage etc. where as Microcontrollers are intended to drive something discreet all by itself.    Most intriguingly, I have told you microcontrollers contain input, output, memory, peripherals etc. but the physical foot print tends to be much smaller than a microprocessor found today.   Microprocessor does not have its own memory, storage for application code, peripherals etc. It depends on external system for these services. Thus a Microprocessor itself cannot be much of a use, if you don’t have other devices connected to it. The fact that microprocesors has to communicate with external systems to get routine services done (example temporary storage of a value on memory), requires wires (we call them system buses). This adds to the pin count, thus makes the packaging larger. Another fact is microprocessors runs very fast (couple of Gigahertz is common), and contains lot of registers (described later) internally for facilitating large amount of data processing. The actual chip inside may be very small, but heat produced with the high clock rates needs larger surface area to dissipate properly. All these facts make microprocessors larger.  On the other hand microcontrollers runs relatively slow (4-20MHz or little more) and have all the communication buses inside the silicone chip. Only the external input and output, power, reset and sometimes a clock reference is all exposed as pins from the package. Heat produces is very low, and natural ventilation would be more than enough to keep the chip cool. All these factors into the low profile packages.  If we take PIC12F675 microcontroller, this only has 8 pins, with two dedicated for power (ground and VCC). Remaining 6 pins can be used for input or output (configurable).  For a little surprise, I will paste the section from the datasheet, which outlined the chip features  Peripheral Features:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">   6 I/O pins with individual direction control</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">   High current sink/source for direct LED drive</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">   Analog comparator module with:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">One analog comparator</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Programmable on-chip comparator voltagereference (CVREF) module</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Programmable input multiplexing from device inputs</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Comparator output is externally accessible</li> </ul></li> </ul> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">   Analog-to-Digital Converter module (PIC12F675):<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">10-bit resolution</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Programmable 4-channel input</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Voltage reference input</li> </ul></li> </ul> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">   Timer0: 8-bit timer/counter with 8-bit programmable prescaler</li> </ul> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">   Enhanced Timer1:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">16-bit timer/counter with prescaler</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">External Gate Input mode</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Option to use OSC1 and OSC2 in LP mode</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">as Timer1 oscillator, if INTOSC mode selected</li> </ul></li> </ul> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">   In-Circuit Serial ProgrammingTM (ICSPTM) via two pins</li> </ul>   Even if you don’t figure out heads or tails, this is an impressive list of features as it sounds, right. An innocent looking chip has all these features packaged in to an 8 pin humble unit? Yes it is.  Don’t worry, you will learn all about these things quite easily.Continued..</blockquote>

Verification: Nawa warak dahaya keeyada? (Namaya wadi kireema dahaya)

Top Bottom

Search

Latest ads

Reply to thread