T1.md

Tutorial 1

Q1

(i). What are the main components of a microcontroller?

Answer:

CPU, I/O, Bus, Memory

(ii).What is the difference between a microcontroller and a microprocessor?

Answer:

(iii). Name 5 criteria for selecting a specific microcontroller for a project.

Answer:

a. I/O requirement:

i.	Number of general purpose I/O ports/pins
ii.	Special interfaces (UART, A/D, D/A)

b. Size of RAM and ROM (type of ROM)

c. On-chip peripherals (timers, counters)

d. Speed requirement

e. Cost

f. Availability (now and future)

g. Development support:

i.	Assembler, compiler, linker
ii.	Debugging tools
iii.	Support from manufacturer and users (forums)

(iv). Compare machine language, assembly language, and high-level language.

Answer:

Machine language – binary code, directly understood by the CPU.

Assembly language – mnemonic representation of the binary code, a one-to-one direct translation (assemble) to the binary code.

High-level language – more human-readable instruction and easy-to-understand programming concept (if-then-else, and loops), one instruction normally translates (compiles) to multiple binary instructions.

(v). Compare address bus and data bus.

Answer:

Address bus – to send (from CPU) the address of the memory requested to the memory module, unidirectional.

Data bus – to send or receive binary data, bidirectional.

(vi). Compare RAM, EEPROM, and Flash in terms of volatility, rewriting speed, and uses.

Answer:

Data RAM – volatile, instant rewrite, store data.

EEPROM – non-volatile, slow in rewriting, store data/program.

Flash – non-volatile, reasonably fast in rewriting, store program.