We often use these words at same places. But have you ever think of the differences between a mirocontroller and a microprocessor? In this tutorial, we will see the features among Microcontroller vs Microprocessor.
What is a Microcontroller?
A microcontroller is a compact integrated circuit designed to govern a specific operation in an embedded system. A typical microcontroller includes a processor, memory and input/output (I/O) peripherals on a single chip. They can take inputs from the device they control and retain control by sending the device’s signals to different parts of the device. A good example is a TV’s microcontroller. Moreover, some other of it’s components include ADC, DAC, System bus, serial port etc. Some prominent microcontrollers include ARM, AVR, 8051 etc.
What is a Microprocessor?
A microprocessor is an integrated circuit (IC). It incorporates core functions of a computer’s central processing unit (CPU). Moreover, it is a programmable multipurpose silicon chip. It is clock driven, register based, accepts binary data as input and provides output after processing it. This is done as per the instructions stored in the memory.
Microprocessor is a controlling unit of a micro-computer. It is fabricated on a small chip capable of performing ALU (Arithmetic Logical Unit) operations and communicating with the other devices connected to it.
Comparing Microcontroller with a Microprocessor
Basically, a microprocessor can be thought of the head of the body. This head with various organs like the timers, ADC, RAM etc forms the body. That body is what we call a microcontroller. By now, we have seen a broad idea about both these terms. Now, we will be comparing them on various technical basis. So, let us begin with that!
Cost and Usage
A Microcontroller is used in specific purpose applications and is control oriented. It is simple and inexpensive with less number of instructions to process. For example, PIC microcontrollers have only 35 instructions. On the other hand, a microprocessor is a general purpose oriented tool. This is much costlier and complex than the later with large number of instructions.
Integrity and Power
In case of a Microcontroller, CPU, RAM, ROM, timers and Input/Output pins are integrated on a single chip. It consumes low power and also has low processing power. Apparently, a Microprocessor has high consumption and processing power. Here, CPU is stand alone and RAM, ROM I/O pins etc. are all separate.
Speed and related features
Basically, a Microprocessor is a CPU. But a Microcontroller is a sum of CPU, peripherals and memory. These peripherals include ports, clock, timers, UART, ADC and other stuff. This memory include EEPROM, SRAM, Flash etc.
Microcontroller based systems run up to 200 MHz or more depending on the structure. Their instructions are both bit and byte addressable. They are mainly 8/16 bit and serve like the brain of the computer system. Also, they have a separate memory map for data and code. Adding to it, they mainly many bit handling instructions.
On the other hand, Microprocessor based systems can run at a very high speed because of the technology involved. The processors like Intel I7, I9 are prominent examples of the same. Moreover, they are mainly Nibble or byte addressable. Typically they are 32/64 bit and serve as the heart of the system. Generally, they require more hardware and have single memory map for data and code. They have one or two bit handling instructions only.
Both of the topics are itself something to research. However, with this blog I have tried to draw a line between them. I hope you were able to go with that. Happy Learning!
