Introduction to Microcontroller:
A microcontroller (μC or uC) is a chip microcomputer fabricated from VLSI
fabrication.
A micro controller is also known as embedded controller.
Today various types of microcontrollers are available in market with different word
lengths such as 4bit, 8bit, 64bit and 128bit microcontrollers.
Microcontroller is a compressed micro computer manufactured to control the
functions of embedded systems in office machines, robots, home appliances, motor
vehicles, and a number of other gadgets.
A microcontroller comprises components like – memory, peripherals and most
importantly a processor.
Microcontrollers are basically employed in devices that need a degree of control to
be applied by the user of the device.
Types of Microcontrollers:
Microcontrollers are divided into categories according to their memory, architecture,
bits and instruction sets.
8051 Microcontroller:
The most universally employed set of microcontrollers come from the 8051 family.
8051 Microcontroller Architecture:
8051 microcontroller is an eight bit microcontroller launched in the year 1981 by Intel
Corporation.
It is available in 40 pin DIP (dual inline package).
It has 4kb of ROM (on-chip programmable space) and 128 bytes of RAM space
which is inbuilt, if desired 64KB of external memory can be interfaced with the
microcontroller.
There are four parallel 8 bits ports which are easily programmable as well as
addressable.
An on-chip crystal oscillator is integrated in the microcontroller which has crystal
frequency of 12MHz.
Fig.8051 Block diagram of Microcontroller Architecture
Central Processor Unit (CPU):
As we know that the CPU is the brain of any processing device of the
microcontroller. It monitors and controls all operations that are performed on the
Microcontroller units. The User has no control over the work of the CPU directly. It
reads program written in ROM memory and executes them and do the expected task
of that application.
Interrupts:
As its name suggests, Interrupt is a subroutine call that interrupts of the
microcontrollers main operations or work and causes it to execute any
other program, which is more important at the time of operation. The feature of
Interrupt is very useful as it helps in case of emergency operations. An Interrupt
gives us a mechanism to put on hold the ongoing operations, execute a subroutine
and then again resumes to another type of operations.
. Generally five interrupt sources are there in 8051 Microcontroller. There are 5
vectored interrupts are shown in below
INTO
TFO
INT1
TF1
R1/T1
Memory:
Microcontroller requires a program which is a collection of instructions. This program
tells microcontroller to do specific tasks.
These programs require a memory on which these can be saved and read by
Microcontroller to perform specific operations of a particular task.
The memory which is used to store the program of the microcontroller is known as
code memory or Program memory of applications. It is known as ROM memory.
The data memory of the 8051 is used to store data temporarily for operation is
known RAM memory.
8051 microcontroller has 4K of code memory or program memory, that has 4KB
ROM and also 128 bytes of data memory of RAM.
BUS:
Basically Bus is a collection of wires which work as a communication channel or
medium for transfer of Data.
These buses consists of 8, 16 or more wires of the microcontroller. Thus, these can
carry 8 bits,16 bits simultaneously. Here two types of buses that are shown in below
Address Bus
Data Bus
Address Bus: Microcontroller 8051 has a 16 bit address bus for transferring the
data. It is used to address memory locations and to transfer the address from CPU to
Memory of the microcontroller.
Data Bus: Microcontroller 8051 has 8 bits of the data bus, which is used to carry
data of particular applications.
Oscillator:
Generally, the microcontroller requires clock pulses for its operation. For this
purpose, microcontroller 8051 has an on-chip oscillator which works as a clock
source for Central Processing Unit of the microcontroller.
Input/Output Port:
Normally microcontroller is used in embedded systems to control the operation of
machines in the microcontroller. Therefore, to connect it to other machines, devices
or peripherals we require I/O interfacing ports in the microcontroller interface. For
this purpose microcontroller 8051 has 4 input, output ports to connect it to the other
peripherals
Timers/Counters:
8051 microcontroller has two 16 bit timers and counters. These counters are again
divided into a 8 bit register. The timers are used for measurement of intervals to
determine the pulse width of pulses.
Microcontroller Applications:
Microcontrollers are intended for embedded devices.
Microcontrollers are employed in automatically managed inventions and appliances
like- power tools, implantable medical devices, automobile engine control systems, ,
office machines, remote controls appliances, toys and many more embedded
systems.
Application of Microcontroller in Day to Day Life Devices:
Light sensing & controlling devices
Temperature sensing and controlling devices
Fire detection & safety devices
Industrial instrumentation devices
Process control devices
Application of Microcontroller in Industrial Control Devices:
Industrial instrumentation devices
Process control devices
Application of Microcontroller in Metering & Measurement Devices:
Volt Meter
Measuring revolving objects
Current meter
Hand-held metering systems
