Getting to Know Processor

Architectures

Microprocessor vs. microcontroller

Microprocessor
CPU is stand-alone,
RAM, ROM, I/O,
timer are separated
designer can decide
on the amount of
ROM, RAM and I/O
ports.
general-purpose
Ex. 8085,8086 mp,
Motorola 6800,
Intels 8086

Microcontroller
CPU, RAM, ROM, I/O
and timer are all on
a single chip
fix amount of onchip ROM, RAM, I/O
ports
single-purpose
Ex. 8051, PIC mc,
Atmel, Phillips

Picking the right

architecture
depends on your system & design
needs (8 bit/ 16 bit/ 32 bit, floating
point)
performance requirements (DSP)
development investment, both in
terms of cost and time

Types of Processor Architectures

Microcontrollers (MCU)
General purpose processors
(ARM, MIPS, )
Digital signal processing (DSP)
Application-Specific Integrated
Circuits (ASIC)
Field Programmable Gate Array
(FPGA)

Which one should I

choose???

Microcontrollers (MCU)

Is there any thing oyher than

Microchip PIC?

Peripherals in C
RAM / Program memory/
EEPROM
Analog to Digital Converters
(ADC)
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
Communication Buses
(USART, Inter-Integrated
Circuit-I2C, Serial Peripheral
Interface-SPI, controller area
network-CAN, USB, )
Digital to Analog Converter
(DAC)
Input/ Output pins
Timers

 Microcontroller Are
Small chip size
Relatively low price
Faster development

Microcontroller Parameters Range

8-bit , 16bit and 32-bit based devices
Integrated RAM : 256B ~ 512kB or beyond
Program memory : 0.5KB ~3MB or beyond
Clock Speed can be kHz ~ 180MHz or
beyond
IC pins: 6 ~ 300 or beyond

MCU Applications

Motor control
Industrial automation
Automotive
Security Systems
Lighting Systems
Consumer equipment
Health Monitoring

General purpose
processors (GPP)

ARM
MIPS
Intel
AMD

Processors advancements
Can Run on a OS (Linux distributions
Ubuntu, Android, Fedora)
Higher operating frequency
Can run multiple applications
simultaneously.
(since processor has memory
management unit)
Easy of development

Embedded Processor
Applications

portable navigation devices

enterprise/educational tablets
industrial automation
home automation

Block Diagram of ARM

processor

Embedded Processors

Popular Single board

Computers

Raspberry Pi Run as a complete

Computer

Digital signal processing (DSP)

Applications

Machine Vision
Video Broadcasting & Infrastructure
Military & Avionics Imaging
Iris Biometrics
Portable MP3 player
Medical imaging (CT Scanners, MRI, ultra
sound)
High performance computing
Mission critical applications

DSP Features
Dedicated multipliers
Dedicated video, audio encoder,
decoders
Floating point hardware units
Multi cores as processing units

Field Programmable Gate Array

(FPGA)

Logic Circuits
(Combinational/Sequential)

FPGA Whats inside?

Logic Blocks (Gates)

Programmable
Interconnections
I/O Ports

FPGA Design Practices

Think of your
logic circuit as a
black box.
Identify inputs
and outputs.

Describe (program) the

body using an HDL.
(Hardware Descriptive
Language)
-VHDL
- Verilog

FPGA Programming

Why FPGA?

Parallel Processing
Easy Prototyping
Board Space Benefits
Performance (Speed) Benefits as
opposed to PCB Routing among
several chips