Friday, December 14, 2012

Introduction to Embedded Systems


                    INTRODUCTION TO EMBEDDED SYSTEMS DESIGNING


 If you take a look around you, you will find that you are  being surrounded by microprocessors and microcontrollers. You can find them in everything from PCs to calculators, from rockets to toys. And as the time progresses this number will still grow. Everyone is trying to control their application through computers. So in this tech savvy age it gets necessary for people to learn about these processors and the way they function. And someone who is really interested can learn how to create their own mini computer.

                The systems that are created to perform a specific task  are called as embedded systems. That is even if the microprocessor of that system is idle it will not perform  any other task. Calculators, cellphones, ipads, missile target sensing, the interface of your washing machine all fall under the category of embedded systems.

                Most of the embedded systems, or you may say 90% of the embedded systems are microcontroller based. Some of the  microcontrollers and microprocessors on which these embedded systems are based are 8051, PIC family, AVR microcontrollers, ARM microprocessors.

                Now you may think what is the difference between a microprocessor and a microcontroller. The major difference between them is that microprocessors are only Logic Units which processes a task. But for the whole process to complete we need RAM, ROM, ADC, DAC, interfacing support etc. On the other hand microcontrollers are the combination of ALU, RAM, ROM, ADC etc (The integration of these components depends on the microcontroller you choose). So due to this it gets easy to implement an embedded system using a microcontroller. The circuit gets reduced and there is no much pain to the brain.

                The microcontroller that we will be using is the 8051 microcontroller. The 8051 is the cheapest and the best chip to start up with. You can find various versions of 8051, the version we will be using is the NXP 89v51RD2. 

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