Microcontrollers Video Lecture - Embedded Systems (Web) - Computer Science Engineering (CSE)

hello and thank you for viewing this
video on what is a microcontroller this
presentation has been developed for new
users of microcontrollers and will focus
on some basic concepts subsequent videos
will go into further detail on
microchips pic microcontrollers and des
pic digital signal controllers in this
presentation we will discuss the
following
a high-level overview of the fundamental
components of a microcontroller or MCU
for short will be discussed including
the central processing unit or CPU the
system clock memory and finally
peripherals we will also identify some
common everyday products that use
microcontrollers you'd be surprised at
how often in your day-to-day activities
you actually come in contact with these
devices so let's begin with the big
question what is a microcontroller
in the simplest of terms a
microcontroller is basically a computer
that comes in a variety of packages and
sizes in fact you could make many
comparisons between a microcontroller
and a personal computer as shown here
now I should mention that a PC typically
performs a number of tasks or runs a
variety of programs simultaneously so
for example you could listen to music
while typing in a word processor or even
have a web browser open all at the same
time a microcontroller on the other hand
is typically dedicated to a single task
however if we take a look at the basic
components that make up both a PC and a
microcontroller we'll see many
similarities to start every computer on
the market will have a central
processing unit or CPU this is the
brains of the whole system that does all
of the calculations and logic operations
in the background
allowing your programs or software to
function a microcontroller similarly has
a central processing unit that performs
these same operations a microcontroller
also has memory just as your PC has a
hard drive or RAM the memory allows the
microcontroller to store information so
that it can be used at a later time
just like your PC a microcontrollers
memory is also used to store programs
that are specific to that single task we
spoke about earlier an essential
component to any computer system is its
clock this controls the speed at which
your CPU thinks or processes information
prints things under your screen or
downloads music or video from the
internet a microcontroller similarly has
a system clock based off an oscillator
this oscillator can be thought of as a
computer's engine without it nothing
would work you could have a brand new
car with all the latest bells and
whistles but without an engine these are
useless when you order a microcontroller
this will be one of the essential
features you will consider the
oscillator speed will determine how fast
your microcontroller will run which
could impact sir
aspects of your applications such as
resolution response and even power
consumption finally in order for you to
communicate with your PC you need
certain peripherals such as a keyboard
or mouse to input information and a
monitor to view the output of the system
a microcontroller is no different in
order to input information or receive
information from the microcontroller
you will need peripherals peripherals on
a microcontroller are usually associated
with a particular pin on the package so
if you want to communicate a certain
piece of information with the device or
receive a certain piece of information
from the device you will connect
circuitry to that specified pin to
accomplish this these four basic
components of the microcontrollers the
processor memory system clock and
peripherals or would differentiate one
type of microcontroller from another
maybe for one application you need a
microcontroller that can operate
extremely fast or maybe you have a lot
of information to store on the device
requiring higher memory densities
another factor perhaps the application
requires a certain type of peripheral
all of these options are why companies
such as microchip offer a wide variety
of products
with all these different options
available microcontrollers are therefore
able to function in a wide variety of
applications anything from a simple
remote control for your television to
communication devices such as cell
phones medical applications like digital
thermometers utility meters home
appliances automotive applications such
as tire pressure sensors or key fobs to
let you get into your car solar panel
interfaces for energy harvesting and
much much more
all of these uses made available from a
tiny computer that could be no bigger
than the size of a cracked piece of
pepper
let's take a look at a simple
application example to show the power of
adding a microcontroller to your design
shown here is an application that lights
an LED when a push button is pressed in
order to light the LED three times
successively you would naturally need to
press the push button three times but
what if we added a microcontroller to
the simple design now we've added a
pretty powerful component that adds
intelligence to our system you could
then program the microcontroller to
recognize when the push button is
pressed wait a period of time and then
flash the LED three times this is a
pretty basic application but as you
could probably imagine the possibilities
of even this simple circuit are
limitless
maybe you'd like to count how many times
the push button was pressed or create a
real-time clock on the microcontroller
and then be able to calculate what time
of day the push button was pressed
so let's summarize what we've discussed
a microcontroller is a very small
computer with similar components as a
standard PC only integrated onto a
single chip and usually dedicated to a
single task some of these fundamental
components include a central processing
unit that does all of the thinking
memory a system clock derived from an
oscillator that serves as the engine for
the device and peripherals that enable
communications between the CPU and the
outside world for comments suggestions
or additional information please do not
hesitate to contact microchips academic
program at academic at microchip comm
thank you