You are on page 1of 28

Review of Syllabus Introduction to Microcontrollers

See Handout

1952 ten feet long two feet wide eight and one-half feet high 2800 Vacuum Tubes One tube could hold one bit of memory Weight: 5 Tons Less Computing Power than your cell phone

In 1971 Intel introduced the 4004, the world's first single-chip microprocessor. It contained 2300* transistors creating all the basic computing elements of a computer on a piece of silicon 3 x 4 millimeters. This was the beginning of the current age of computers! * Todays microprocessors contain millions.

Early personal computers were mostly of interest only to hobbyists and, interestingly, Radio Shack was the early leader in personal computers with its TRS-80 series

In 1981, IBM introduced their first PC:

4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k. One or two160k floppy disk drives An optional color monitor.

It sold for $1500, about $4000 in today's dollars.

What are RAM, ROM, FLASH?

Random Access Memory


Properties
Compact Contents can be easily changed Looses data when power turned off

Types
Dynamic
Least expanse, most memory, requires refresy

Static
Faster, less compact, does not require refresh Used for cache memory

Read-Only Memory
Fabricated with contents Maintains value when power off Low manufacturing cost in large quantities Expensive to change contents

Programmable ROM Programmed with special hardware

Contents created with a special program Keeps contents when power off Appropriate for low-volume applications or applications where value may be changed My blu-ray player uses flash allowing updates

A microcontroller is a single integrated circuit that contains a basic microprocessor plus specialized hardware to control an electromechanical system. Microcontrollers could be used in a vast array of specialized applications. What can you think of that uses a microcontroller?

A basic microprocessor Several general-purpose input/output ports Several timers Two multi-input A/D converters Several PWM Generators for motor control Built-in RAM and FLASH memory

Computers use the binary number system. A binary number consists of a sequence of 0s and 1s. In the decimal number system:
2134 = 2 * 103 + 1 * 102 + 3 * 101 + 4 * 100

In the binary number system:


1101 = 1 * 23 + 1 * 22 + 0 * 21 + 1 * 20 = 8 + 4 + 0 +1 = 13 decimal 10112 = ?10 01112 = ?10

Numbers Instructions ASCII Characters

In a computer, a single one or zero is called a bit. A group of 4 bits is called a nibble A group of 8 bits is called a byte. A group of bits of the maximum size a particular processor can handle in a single operation is called a word. Bits are generally numbered from right to left with the right-most bit being bit 0.

The physical microcontroller and memory elements are considered hardware Code that is loaded into RAM is considered software Code stored in ROM or FLASH is considered firmware

The ASCII character set

What is MECH 405 in ASCII?

What is 97 decimal as an ASCII Sequence?

History of microcomputers & microcontrollers Microprocessors RAM, ROM, PROM, FLASH Binary Numbers Bits, Nibbles, Bytes & Words Using binary numbers in computers Binary numbers in hardware Hexadecimal Numbers The elements of a microcomputer The elements of a microcontroller The ASCII code Put it all together

You might also like