Architecture of a Typical Microcontroller
Microcontrollers are the building blocks of any digital signal processing system. In layman’s terms, they can be described as miniature computers that are present on chips. They consume very little amount of power and are self sufficient. They are similar to microprocessors but contain some additional elements such as read only memory in the form of EEPROM (Electrical Programmable Read Only Memory) and a read write memory that usually utilises flash technology. Another difference between microcontrollers and microprocessors is the clock speed. Microcontrollers usually operate at low clock speeds. Low clock speeds are adopted as they are suitable for the operations that are usually performed using microcontrollers. Also, this ensures that they consume less power.
