Microcontrollers and PIC

What's a microcontroller?

A microcontroller, as showed by the name, is a device with control purposes: is used for the control and automation of little processes, common uses devices, and low-cost applications. Is a complete microprocessor system, integrated in a single chip, developed to obtain the best performances versus the lowest cost for a specific application. The important difference with the PC microprocessor is just the specificity for the end applications, instead of the PC microP that is for general purposes.

A microcontroller is also called "single-chip computer", because all the core components of a computer are embedded in microcontrollers: a CPU, a memory bank, and some peripherals. In this case, obviously, the performances of these components are very little if compared with a PC but are balanced with the applications that the microcontrollers will control.

The microcontrollers are the most invisible and spreaded form of computers. In a microC we can see a CPU with registers from 8 to 16 bit, a memory ROM and RAM (can be PROM, EPROM, EEPROM or FLASH) and a wide range of I/O devices and integrated peripherals, that includes:

• serial buses (I2C, SPI, CAN, LIN)
• bus USART
• A/D and D/A converters, with a number of channels
• timers
• counters
• external and bi-directional ports with buffer or, open collector, open drain, schmitt-trigger
• comparators
• PWM drivers

Microcontrollers are contained in a large number of home appliances like video recorders and TV built before 1990, in cameras, videocameras, CD and DVD readers, in microwaves, in devices for industrial automation, in most of the washing machines or dishwashers of the last generation,