Microcontrollers

University of Belgrade
School of Electrical Engineering

 Introduction
The situation we find ourselves today in the field of
microcontrollers has its beginnings in the development of
technology of integrated circuits. It enabled us to store
hundreds of thousands of transistors into one chip, which
was a precondition for the manufacture of
microprocessors. The first computers were made by
adding external peripherals, such as memory,
input/output lines, timers and other circuits, to it. Further
increasing of package density resulted in designing an
integrated circuit which contained both processor and
peripherals. This is how the first chip containing a
microcomputer later known as the microcontroller was
developed.

 Microcontrollers structure
Novices in electronics usually think that the
microcontroller (MCU) is the same as the
microprocessor. Thats not true. They differ from each
other in many ways. The first and most important
difference in favour of the microcontroller is its
functionality. In order that the microprocessor may be
used, other components, memory comes first, must be
added to it. Even though it is considered a powerful
computing machine, it is not adjusted to communicating
to peripheral environment. In order to enable the
microprocessor to communicate with peripheral
environment, special circuits must be used.

This is how it was in the beginning and remains the

same today.

On the other hand, the

microcontroller is designed to
be all of that in one. No other
specialized external
components are needed for
its application because all
necessary circuits which
otherwise belong to
peripherals are already built
in it. It saves time and space
needed to design a device.

 All the microcontroller can do

About ten years ago, designing of an electronic device
controlling the elevator in a multistory building was
enormously difficult, even for a team of experts. Do we
know what requirements an ordinary elevator must
meet? How to deal with the situation when two or
more people call the elevator at the same time? Which
call has priority? How to handle security question?
Loss of electricity? Failure? Misuse?...

What comes after solving these basic questions is a

painstaking process of designing appropriate
electronics using a large number of specialized chips.
Depending on device complexity, this process can take
weeks or months. When finished, its time to design a
printed circuit board (PCB) and assemble device. A
huge device! It is another long-lasting and trying work.
Finally, when everything is finished and tested for many
times, the crucial moment comes when we concentrate,
take a deep breath and switch the power supply on.

 How to start working with MCUs?

Steps:

1.

2.

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4.

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8.

 Some subsystems of microcontroller

Register - Register or a memory cell is an electronic
circuit which can memorize the state of one byte.

*CPU Central Processor Unit

Input/output ports - In order to make the microcontroller

useful, it has to be connected to additional electronics, i.e.
peripherals. Each microcontroller has one or more
registers (called ports) connected to the microcontroller
pins.

Memory Unit - Memory is part of the microcontroller used

for data storage. The easiest way to explain it is to
compare it with a filing cabinet with many drawers.
Suppose, the drawers are clearly marked so that their
contents can be easily found out by reading the label on
the front of the drawer.
Similarly, each memory
address corresponds to
one memory location. The
contents of any location
can be accessed and
read by its addressing.
Memory can either be
written to or read from.

Central Processor Unit - As its name suggests, this is a

unit which monitors and controls all processes within the
microcontroller. It consists of several subunits, of which the
most important are:
Instruction Decoder is a part of electronics which
decodes program instructions and runs other circuits on the
basis of that.
Arithmetical Logical Unit (ALU) performs all
mathematical and logical operations upon data.
Accumulator is an SF Register closely related to the
operation of the ALU.

Central Processor Unit - CPU

*PSW Program Status Word

A/D Converter - External signals are usually

fundamentally different from those the microcontroller
understands (ones and zeros) and have to be converted
therefore into values understandable for the
microcontroller. An analogue to digital converter is an
electronic circuit which converts continuous signals to
discrete digital numbers. In other words, this circuit
converts an analogue value into a binary number and
passes it to the CPU for further processing. This module
is therefore used for input pin voltage measurement
(analogue value).

 Conclusion
Microcontrollers offer a wide range of applications and
only some of them are normally used. Prior to turning
on the device, its operation should be tested by a
simulator. If everything works fine, we build the
microcontroller into device.
If we need to change, improve or upgrade the program,
we just do it.
Until when?
Until we feel satisfied. Thats all.