Introduction

Circumstances that we find ourselves in today in the field of microcontrollers had their beginnings in
the development of technology of integrated circuits. This development has made it possible to store
hundreds of thousands of transistors into one chip. That was a prerequisite for production of
microprocessors , and the first computers were made by adding external peripherals such as memory,
input-output lines, timers and other. Further increasing of the volume of the package resulted in
creation of integrated circuits. These integrated circuits contained both processor and peripherals. That
is how the first chip containing a microcomputer , or what would later be known as a microcontroller
came about.

Microcontrollers versus Microprocessors

Microcontroller differs from a microprocessor in many ways. First and the most important is its
functionality. In order for a microprocessor to be used, other components such as memory, or
components for receiving and sending data must be added to it. In short that means that
microprocessor is the very heart of the computer. On the other hand, microcontroller is designed to be
all of that in one. No other external components are needed for its application because all necessary
peripherals are already built into it. Thus, we save the time and space needed to construct devices.

1.1Memory unit
Memory is part of the microcontroller whose function is to store data. The easiest way to explain it is to
describe it as one big closet with lots of drawers. If we suppose that we marked the drawers in such a
way that they can not be confused, any of their contents will then be easily accessible. It is enough to
know the designation of the drawer and so its contents will be known to us for sure.
 Memory components are exactly like that. For a certain input we get the contents of a certain
addressed memory location and that's all. Two new concepts are brought to us: addressing and
memory location. Memory consists of all memory locations, and addressing is nothing but selecting
one of them. This means that we need to select the desired memory location on one hand, and on
the other hand we need to wait for the contents of that location. Beside reading from a memory
location, memory must also provide for writing onto it. This is done by supplying an additional line
called control line. We will designate this line as R/W (read/write). Control line is used in the
following way: if r/w=1, reading is done, and if opposite is true then writing is done on the memory
location. Memory is the first element, and we need a few operation of our microcontroller .
1.2Central Processing Unit
Let add 3 more memory locations to a specific block that will have a built in capability to multiply, divide,
subtract, and move its contents from one memory location onto another. The part we just added in is
called "central processing unit" (CPU). Its memory locations are called registers.

Registers are therefore memory locations whose role is to help with performing various mathematical
operations or any other operations with data wherever data can be found. Look at the current situation.
We have two independent entities (memory and CPU) which are interconnected, and thus any exchange
of data is hindered, as well as its functionality. If, for example, we wish to add the contents of two
memory locations and return the result again back to memory, we would need a connection between
memory and CPU. Simply stated, we must have some "way" through data goes from one block to
another.

1.3Bus
That "way" is called "bus". Physically, it represents a group of 8, 16, or more wires There are two types
of buses: address and data bus. The first one consists of as many lines as the amount of memory we
wish to address, and the other one is as wide as data, in our case 8 bits or the connection line. First one
serves to transmit address from CPU memory, and the second to connect all blocks inside the
microcontroller.

As far as functionality, the situation has improved, but a new problem has also appeared: we have a unit
that's capable of working by itself, but which does not have any contact with the outside world, or with
us! In order to remove this deficiency, let's add a block which contains several memory locations whose
one end is connected to the data bus, and the other has connection with the output lines on the
microcontroller which can be seen as pins on the electronic component.

1.4 Input-output unit

Those locations we've just added are called "ports". There are several types of ports : input, output or
bidiectional ports. When working with ports, first of all it is necessary to choose which port we need to
work with, and then to send data to, or take it from the port.
When working with it the port acts like a memory location. Something is simply being written into or
read from it, and it could be noticed on the pins of the microcontroller.

1.5 Serial communication

Beside stated above we've added to the already existing unit the possibility of communication with an
outside world. However, this way of communicating has its drawbacks. One of the basic drawbacks is
the number of lines which need to be used in order to transfer data. What if it is being transferred to a
distance of several kilometers? The number of lines times number of kilometers doesn't promise the
economy of the project. It leaves us having to reduce the number of lines in such a way that we don't
lessen its functionality. Suppose we are working with three lines only, and that one line is used for
sending data, other for receiving, and the third one is used as a reference line for both the input and the
output side. In order for this to work, we need to set the rules of exchange of data. These rules are
called protocol. Protocol is therefore defined in advance so there wouldn't be any misunderstanding
between the sides that are communicating with each other. For example, if one man is speaking in
French, and the other in English, it is highly unlikely that they will quickly and effectively understand
each other. Let's suppose we have the following protocol. The logical unit "1" is set up on the
transmitting line until transfer begins. Once the transfer starts, we lower the transmission line to logical
"0" for a period of time (which we will designate as T), so the receiving side will know that it is receiving
data, and so it will activate its mechanism for reception. Let's go back now to the transmission side and
start putting logic zeros and ones onto the transmitter line in the order from a bit of the lowest value to
a bit of the highest value. Let each bit stay on line for a time period which is equal to T, and in the end,
or after the 8th bit, let us bring the logical unit "1" back on the line which will mark the end of the
transmission of one data. The protocol we've just described is called in professional literature NRZ (Non-
Return to Zero).

As we have separate lines for receiving and sending, it is possible to receive and send data (info.) at the
same time. So called full-duplex mode block which enables this way of communication is called a serial
communication block. Unlike the parallel transmission, data moves here bit by bit, or in a series of bits
what defines the term serial communication comes from. After the reception of data we need to read it
from the receiving location and store it in memory as opposed to sending where the process is reversed.
Data goes from memory through the bus to the sending location, and then to the receiving unit
according to the protocol.

1.6 Timer unit

Since we have the serial communication explained, we can receive, send and process data.

However, in order to utilize it in industry we need a few additionally blocks. One of those is the timer
block which is significant to us because it can give us information about time, duration, protocol etc. The
basic unit of the timer is a free-run counter which is in fact a register whose numeric value increments
by one in even intervals, so that by taking its value during periods T1 and T2 and on the basis of their
difference we can determine how much time has elapsed. This is a very important part of the
microcontroller whose understnding requires most of our time.

1.7 Watchdog

One more thing is requiring our attention is a flawless functioning of the microcontroller during its run-
time. Suppose that as a result of some interference (which often does occur in industry) our
microcontroller stops executing the program, or worse, it starts working incorrectly.

Of course, when this happens with a computer, we simply reset it and it will keep working. However,
there is no reset button we can push on the microcontroller and thus solve our problem. To overcome
this obstacle, we need to introduce one more block called watchdog. This block is in fact another free-
run counter where our program needs to write a zero in every time it executes correctly. In case that
program gets "stuck", zero will not be written in, and counter alone will reset the microcontroller upon
achieving its maximum value. This will result in executing the program again, and correctly this time
around. That is an important element of every program to be reliable without man's supervision.

1.8 Analog to Digital Converter

As the peripheral signals usually are substantially different from the ones that microcontroller can
understand (zero and one), they have to be converted into a pattern which can be comprehended by a
microcontroller. This task is performed by a block for analog to digital conversion or by an ADC. This
block is responsible for converting an information about some analog value to a binary number and for
follow it through to a CPU block so that CPU block can further process it.

Finnally, the microcontroller is now completed, and all we need to do now is to assemble it into an
electronic component where it will access inner blocks through the outside pins. The picture below
shows what a microcontroller looks like inside.

Thin lines which lead from the center towards the sides of the microcontroller represent wires
connecting inner blocks with the pins on the housing of the microcontroller so called bonding lines.
Chart on the following page represents the center section of a microcontroller.
1.9Program
Program writing is a special field of work with microcontrollers and is called "programming". Try to write
a small program in a language that we will make up ourselves first and then would be understood by
anyone.

START REGISTER1=MEMORY LOCATION_A

REGISTER2=MEMORY LOCATION_B

PORTA=REGISTER1 + REGISTER2

END

The program adds the contents of two memory locations, and views their sum on port A. The first line of
the program stands for moving the contents of memory location "A" into one of the registers of central
processing unit. As we need the other data as well, we will also move it into the other register of the
central processing unit. The next instruction instructs the central processing unit to add the contents of
those two registers and send a result to port A, so that sum of that addition would be visible to the
outside world. For a more complex problem, program that works on its solution will be bigger.
Programming can be done in several languages such as Assembler, C and Basic which are most
commonly used languages. Assembler belongs to lower level languages that are programmed slowly,
but take up the least amount of space in memory and gives the best results where the speed of program
execution is concerned. As it is the most commonly used language in programming microcontrollers it
will be discussed in a later chapter. Programs in C language are easier to be written, easier to be
understood, but are slower in executing from assembler programs. Basic is the easiest one to learn, and
its instructions are nearest a man's way of reasoning, but like C programming language it is also slower
than assembler. In any case, before you make up your mind about one of these languages you need to
consider carefully the demands for execution speed, for the size of memory and for the amount of time
available for its assembly. After the program is written, we would install the microcontroller into a
device and run it. In order to do this we need to add a few more external components necessary for its
work. First we must give life to a microcontroller by connecting it to a power supply (power needed for
operation of all electronic instruments) and oscillator whose role is similar to the role that heart plays in
a human body. Based on its clocks microcontroller executes instructions of a program. As it receives
supply microcontroller will perform a small check up on itself, look up the beginning of the program and
start executing it. How the device will work depends on many parameters, the most important of which
is the skillfulness of the developer of hardware, and on programmer's expertise in getting the maximum
out of the device with his program.