Embedded Systems

Embedded System. The term itself brings to mind some chip ‘embedded’ on a surface with complex wiring connections further connecting it to some even more complex ‘embedded’ systems.

Well, they are actually a lot simpler.

In simple words and Embedded System is any electronic system that uses a ‘chip’.

Microcontrollers and Microprocessors are two of the most common and most used embedded systems.

A microprocessor is a general purpose chip used in applications which require huge amount arithmetic, logical etc. operations. Our laptops use a microprocessor chip.

A microcontroller on the other hand is designed for specific tasks. Unlike a microprocessor it cannot be designed for controlling several processes. A microcontroller is preferred in applications that do not require too many tasks to be performed. If you guys ever open up your washing machines, you might find a microcontroller chip inside it. All those functions that a washing machine performs, toggle, spin, dry.. are controlled by a microcontroller.

A microcontroller is much cheaper than a microprocessor. It requires much less power. For this reason, they are the favoured option for most robotic applications.

Microcontrollers are, for us robo-tists, a godsend. They showed us how we can make interesting projects in the seemingly dull course structure. They give us the first glimpse of what it is like to be an engineer.

Microcontrollers are easily available in the market. They belong to different families aka companies.

1. 8051:  the ‘8051 core’ was the de-facto standard in 8-bit (and 4-bit) microcontrollers. Developed by Intel in the 1980’s, it still seems to be the instruction set they love to teach you in college. They are based on VERY OLD, but field proven instruction set. Very old techs, in my humble opinion, but these IC’s have been significantly improved.
2. PIC: This is the classic microcontroller from Microchip. Very simple, very proven, but it lacks some features that other manufacturer’s are building into their chips.
3. AVR:  This is a direct competitor of PIC. Designed and named AVR for god knows what reason by Atmel, it is a direct competitor of PIC. It does everything a PIC does, only faster and cheaper. The AVR series of Microcontrollers are readily available in the market. Also, their platform for programming is not licensed, but freely available on the web.
4. MSP: These microcontrollers by Texas Instruments are pretty good, but, they truly excel at low power applications. Imagine running a complete system on one AA battery for 5 years. This is the realm of nano-amp  current consumption.
5. ARM: Dunno what ‘ARM’ stands for. But, these are VERY powerful, extremely low power consumption and very low cost. But, for a beginner they can get really intimidating if you haven’t played around with a Microcontroller before.

The most popular microcontroller among robot-enthusiasts, for now, is Atmel’s AVR. In the coming weeks we shall be covering various topics on ‘How to Program a Microcontroller’.

If you are interested in learning how to program and use a microcontroller, it’s best to buy a development board. Because, you see, it reduces the number of errors possible in the system. If you are using a development board, the only errors that will be present will be the ones you make in programming, which can be easily rectified. But, once you have mastered the skill of programming a microcontroller, go for designing the hardware of your Microcontroller system ( not the microcontroller, you can use the chip in your system :P ) on your own.