FADZLIANA SAAD

CENTER FOR ELECTRONIC

ENGINEERING STUDIES

INTRODUCTION TO MICROCONTROLLER
 At the end of this chapter, the
students should be able to.…

1. Write major differences between a microprocessor and a

microcontroller
2. Explain the applications of microcontrollers
3. Explain how does a microcontroller differ from a microprocessor
4. Explain the different ways of classifying the types of
microcontrollers
5. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Harvard and
Princeton (Von-Neumann) architectures
6. Explain the difference between RISC and CISC microcontrollers
7. Differentiate between an embedded and external memory
microcontroller
8. Discuss microcomputer system. Is microcomputer as same as
microcontroller
 Microprocessors and
Microcontrollers

• To control some process

Microprocessor • Miniaturization – onto
• Built from logic one chip
components • Smaller size – fit onto • Contains CPU, Memory,
• Large, heavy boxes small cct board I/O, timers and interrupt
• Eg: Zilog Z80, Intel 8088, (Fig. 1.2)
Motorola 6809, etc.
• ~ a CPU (Fig. 1.1)

Controller Microcontroller

Intel 8085 – 8-bit

Intel 8086/8088 – 16-bit Intel 8051 – 8-bit
Intel 8096 – 16-bit
Microprocessors and
Microcontrollers
 Microprocessors and
Microcontrollers

Figure 1.2 A block diagram of a microcontroller

 Difference of
Microcontroller and Microprocessor
 Difference of
Microcontroller and Microprocessor
 Terminology used for
microcontrollers

CPU

CONTROL/MONITOR FETCH, DECODE AND

(INPUT/OUTPUT) DEVICES EXECUTE AN INSTRUCTION

THE BUSES:
ADDRESS, DATA,
AND CONTROL
 Terminology used for microcontrollers

Machine Cycle
To execute an instruction–the processor
must:
1. Fetch the instruction from memory
2. Decode the instruction
3. Execute the instruction
4. Store the result back in the memory.

ONE machine cycle = ‘X’ clock cycles (‘X’

CPU (Central Processing Unit) depends on the particular
instruction being executed).
• Brain of the computer
• Admin all activities in the
system
• Perform all data operations PROCESSOR
based on instruction set (set Faster
IS FASTER!

of binary codes) execution of

instructions
• Fetching Time to
complete a
• Executing cycle ↓

Clock cycle
↓
 Terminology used for microcontrollers

Fetching and Executing an Instruction

• Fetching involves the following steps:

• Contents of PC are placed on address bus.
• READ signal is activated.
• Data (instruction opcode) are read from RAM and placed on
data bus.
• Opcode is latched into the CPU’s internal instruction register.
• PC is incremented to prepare for the next fetch from memory.

• Execution involves: decoding the opcode and generating control

signals to gate internal registers in and out of the ALU and to
signal the ALU to perform the specified operation
 Terminology used for microcontrollers

Fetching and Executing an Instruction

 Terminology used for microcontrollers

The Buses : Address, Data, and Control

• A BUS is a collection of wires carrying information with a common purpose.

• For each read or write operation, the CPU specifies the location of the data
or instruction by placing an address on the address bus, then activates a signal
on the control bus indicating whether the operation is read or write.

• READ OPERATIONS retrieve a byte of data from memory at the location

specified and place it on the data bus. CPU reads the data and places it in one of
its internal registers.

• WRITE OPERATIONS put data from CPU on the data bus and store it in the
location specified.
 Terminology used for microcontrollers

ADDRESS BUS carries the address of a specified location.

For n address lines, 2𝑛 locations can be accessed. E.g., A 16-bit
address bus can access 216 = 65,536 locations or 64K locations
(210 = 1024 = 1K, 26 = 64).

DATA BUS carries information between the CPU and

memory or between the CPU and I/O devices.

CONTROL BUS carries control signals supplied by the CPU

to synchronize the movement of information on the address
and data bus.
 Terminology used for microcontrollers

CONTROL/MONITOR
(INPUT/OUTPUT) DEVICES

• CONTROL DEVICES are

outputs, or actuators, that can
affect the world around them
when supplied with a voltage or
current.

• MONITORING DEVICES
are inputs, or sensors, that are
Example of control devices
stimulated by temperature,
pressure, light, motion, etc. and
convert this to voltage or
current signals to be read by the
computer.
 Types of Microcontrollers

INTERNAL
BUS MEMORY INSTRUCTION
Microcontrollers ARCHITECTURE
WIDTH SET
can be classified
on the basis of
internal bus
width,
architecture,
memory and
instruction set.
FAMILY
 Types of Microcontrollers

THE 8-BIT MICROCONTROLLER

When the ALU performs arithmetic and logical

operations on a byte (8-bits) at an instruction, the
microcontroller is an 8-bit microcontroller. The
internal bus width of 8-bit microcontroller is of 8-
bit. Examples of 8-bit microcontrollers are Intel
8051 family and Motorola MC68HC11 family.

THE 16-BIT MICROCONTROLLER

When the ALU performs arithmetic and logical operations on a

word (16-bits) at an instruction, the microcontroller is an 16-bit
microcontroller. The internal bus width of 16-bit microcontroller
is of 16-bit. Examples of 16-bit microcontrollers are Intel 8096
family and Motorola MC68HC12 and MC68332 families. The
performance and computing capability of 16 bit microcontrollers
are enhanced with greater precision as compared to the 8-bit
microcontrollers.
 Types of Microcontrollers

THE 32-BIT MICROCONTROLLER

When the ALU performs arithmetic and logical

operations on a double word (32- bits) at an
instruction, the microcontroller is an 32-bit
microcontroller. The internal bus width of 32-bit
microcontroller is of 32-bit.

Examples of 32-bit microcontrollers are Intel

80960 family and Motorola M683xx and
Intel/Atmel 251 family. The performance and
computing capability of 32 bit microcontrollers
are enhanced with greater precision as
compared to the 16-bit microcontrollers.
 Types of Microcontrollers

EMBEDDED MICROCONTROLLERS
When an embedded system has an microcontroller unit that has all the
functional blocks (including program as well as data memory) available
on a chip is called an embedded microcontroller. For example, 8051
having Program & Data Memory, I/O Ports, Serial Communication,
Counters and Timers and Interrupt Control logic on the chip is an
embedded microcontroller.

EXTERNAL MEMORY MICROCONTROLLERS

When an embedded system has an microcontroller unit that has not all the
functional blocks available on a chip is called an external memory microcontroller.
In external memory microcontroller, all or part of the memory units are
externally interfaced using an interfacing circuit called the glue circuit. For
example, 8031 has no program memory on the chip is an external memory
microcontroller.
 Types of Microcontrollers

CISC (COMPLEX INSTRUCTION SET COMPUTER)

ARCHITECTURE MICROCONTROLLERS
When an microcontroller has an instruction set that supports many
addressing modes for the arithmetic and logical instructions, data
transfer and memory accesses instructions, the microcontroller is
said to be of CISC architecture.

The typical CISC microcontroller has well over 80 instructions,

many of them very powerful and very specialized for specific control
tasks. It is quite common for the instructions to all behave quite
differently. Some might only operate on certain address spaces or
registers, and others might only recognize certain addressing modes.

The advantages of the CISC architecture are that many of the

instructions are macrolike, allowing the programmer to use
one instruction in place of many simpler instructions.
 Types of Microcontrollers

RISC (REDUCED INSTRUCTION SET COMPUTER)

ARCHITECTURE MICROCONTROLLERS
The industry trend for microprocessor design is for Reduced
Instruction Set Computers (RISC) designs. When a microcontroller
has an instruction set that supports fewer addressing modes for
the arithmetic and logical instructions, and for data transfer
instructions, the microcontroller is said to be of RISC architecture.

The benefits of RISC design simplicity are a smaller chip, smaller

pin count, and very low power consumption.
 Types of Microcontrollers

Harvard Von-Neumann (Princeton)

• Harvard Architecture refers to a • A Von-Neumann Machine, in contrast

memory structure where the to the Harvard Architecture provides
processor is connected to two one data path (bus) for both
different memory banks via two sets instruction and data
of buses • As a result, the CPU can either be
• This is to provide the processor with fetching an instruction from memory,
two distinct data paths, one for or read/writing data to it
instruction and one for data • Other than less complexity of
• Through this scheme, the CPU can hardware, it allows for using a single,
read both an instruction and data sequential memory.
from the respective memory banks at • The Von-Neuman architecture’s main
the same time advantage is that it simplifies the
These • This inherent independence increases microcontroller design because only
architectures the throughput of the machine by one memory is accessed.
differ in the way enabling it to always pre-fetch the
next instruction
data and
• The Harvard Architecture executes
programs are instructions in fewer instruction
stored and cycles than the Von-Neumann
accessed architecture
• The cost of such a system is
complexity in hardware
• Commonly used in DSPs
 Types of Microcontrollers

Harvard
and
von-Neumann Architecture
Design Operation of Memory
The Design and Operation of Memory
 Memory in a microprocessor system is where
information (data and instructions) is kept. It can be
classified into two main types:
 Main memory (RAM and ROM)
 Storage memory (Disks , CD ROMs, etc.)

 The simple view of RAM is that it is made up of registers that

are made up of flip-flops (or memory elements).
 The number of flip-flops in a “memory register” determines the size
of the memory word.
 ROM on the other hand uses diodes instead of the flip-flops to
permanently hold the information.

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Accessing Information in Memory
 For the microprocessor to access (Read or Write)
information in memory (RAM or ROM), it needs to do
the following:
 Select the right memory chip (using part of the address bus).
 Identify the memory location (using the rest of the address
bus).
 Access the data (using the data bus).

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The Basic Memory Element
 The basic memory element is similar to a D latch.
 This latch has an input where the data comes in. It has an
enable input and an output on which data comes out.

Data Input Data Output

D Q

Enable
EN

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The Basic Memory Element
 However, this is not safe.
 Data is always present on the input and the output is always
set to the contents of the latch.
 To avoid this, tri-state buffers are added at the input and
output of the latch.

Data Input Data Output

D Q

WR RD
Enable
EN

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The Basic Memory Element
 The WR signal controls the input buffer.
 The bar over WR means that this is an active low signal.
 So, if WR is 0 the input data reaches the latch input.
 If WR is 1 the input of the latch looks like a wire connected to
nothing.
 The RD signal controls the output in a similar manner.

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A Memory “Register”
 If we take four of these latches and connect them
together, we would have a 4-bit memory register

I0 I1 I2 I3

WR
D D D D
Q Q Q Q
EN EN EN EN
EN

RD O0 O1 O2 O3

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A group of memory registers
D0 D1 D2 D3

o o o o
WR

D Q D Q D Q D Q

EN EN EN EN

D Q D Q D Q D Q

 Expanding on this EN EN EN EN

scheme to add more

memory registers we get D Q D Q D Q D Q

the diagram to the right. EN EN EN EN

D Q D Q D Q D Q

EN EN EN EN

o o o o
RD

D0 D1 D2 D3

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A group of Memory Registers
 If we represent each memory location (Register) as a block we
get the following
I I I I
0 1 2 3
W Input Buffers

R
EN Memory Reg. 0

EN
0 Memory Reg. 1

EN
1 Memory Reg. 2

EN
2 Memory Reg. 3

3
Output Buffers
RD

O O O O
0 1 2 3

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The Design of a Memory Chip
 Using the RD and WR controls we can determine the
direction of flow either into or out of memory. Then
using the appropriate Enable input we enable an individual
memory register.

 What we have just designed is a memory with 4 locations

and each location has 4 elements (bits). This memory
would be called 4 X 4 [Number of location X number of
bits per location].

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The Enable Inputs
 How do we produce these enable line?
 Since we can never have more than one of these enables active
at the same time, we can have them encoded to reduce the
number of lines coming into the chip.
 These encoded lines are the address lines for memory.

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The Design of a Memory Chip
 So, the previous diagram would now look like the following:

I I I I
0 1 2 3
W Input Buffers

R
A D Memory Reg. 0

A1 d e Memory Reg. 1
d c
Memory Reg. 2
A0 r o
e d Memory Reg. 3
s e
RD s r Output Buffers

O O O O
0 1 2 3

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The Design of a Memory Chip
 Since we have tri-state buffers on both the inputs and
outputs of the flip flops, we can actually use one set of
pins only.
 The chip would now look like this:

W Input Buffers

R
A D Memory Reg. 0 D0 D0
A1 d e Memory Reg. 1 A1
D1 D1
d c
Memory Reg. 2
A0 r o D2 A0 D2
e d Memory Reg. 3
D3 D3
s e
RD s r Output Buffers
RD W
R

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