Talk:Microcontroller

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Contents

[edit] Not quite the right illustration?

Image:Microcontroller.jpg

That image "Microcontroller.jpg" now on the article doesn't seem like a microcontroller to me, as it's a PCB, not a chip. It might have one on the board, but it doesn't seem like a good illustration of a microcontroller itself. Can anyone with more knowledge comment or fix? -R. S. Shaw 21:36, 2004 Oct 23 (UTC)

In the meantime, I suggest the image instead be placed in the Printed circuit board article, where it would fit in just splendidly, as that article only has got an extreme close-up of a PCB side without any components. The "µC.jpg" image, however, shows lots of stuff. :-) --Wernher 01:47, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I've deleted the image because it's a copyvio by Cheung1303. This user has a history of uploading images he found on google. Theresa Knott (Tart, knees hot) 07:48, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Comparison would be very helpful

If there ever was a site on the entire Internet, where folks would pilgrim, just to get a decent answer to the question "Ok, now there are like five hundred families of microcontrollers around. I've been surfing now for three entire work days, and I'm drowning in details and gratuituous data. If anywhere, I'd hope at least Wikipedia would have a page where the different families (i.e. from different manufacturers) would be concicely explained. (Like in two sentences eac.) From there of course one could click to their "favorite" brand, and get a listing of each of the submodels, again explained in ONLY two sentences.

Oh Bob, I could PAY for those pages!!!!!! 84.230.176.159 23:33, 10 December 2005 (UTC) Georg Wrede

I agree, having a listing of all the different uP and uC would be incredibly helpful if it were to have descriptions (short ones preferably). And especially why a certain chip or family is better than the others. I'm not saying that the companies could use this page as an advertising site, but their input would be very helpful.

An example of what I mean is:

Zilog:

Z80 Encore! MC -- designed for motor control applications

Microchip:

dsPIC30 family -- designed for DSP

I also realize that this sort of information would be more appropriate in a forum setting, but there really aren't any forums where the information is provided in a concise manner. Also, forums have a tendency to favor (or only support) one type of chip.

Lordfuzzz 17:05, 24 August 2006 (UTC)Fuzzz

I agree -- that would be very nice. Is the microcontroller comparision at Wikibooks:Embedded Systems/Particular Microprocessors at least headed the right direction? --68.0.120.35 01:34, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SX from Ubicom to Parallax?

Since SX chips have only been available from Parallax for a while now, and are labled with their name, would it not be more appropriate to move the SX chip into a new Parallax category?

Ubicom's other processors would be better left as is, since Parallax has no involvement with them OwenS | T | C | 15:41, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

  • Additionally, thinking about it, Parallax needs an entry for their new Propeller too OwenS | T | C | 16:07, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I added a blurb about the Propeller, but there needs to be a disambiguation page between the Propeller IC and what's on an airplane. tdperk@hotmail.com205.161.221.144 20:06, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of Manufacturers

Do we really need this list? There is a definite feeling around Wikipedia that lists like this serve no purpose. At the very least have just list of manufactueres, not their products as well Graemec2 13:25, 12 October 2006 (UTC) Im going to remove it a couple of days unless I get any strong objections. Graemec2 08:04, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

The list of manufacturers and features of their microcontrollers is very useful to someone who actually needs to use one. As an engineer, I look for this sort of summary to compare products all the time. Yeah, may not be useful to a layman, but how many laymen would read this article? TheBorg24 06:42, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] External Link Cleanup

Lots of external links that didn't meet WP:EL guidelines were removed. Broken links, links to personal websites, excessive advertising, commercial websites, etc. Calltech 23:09, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Added WP dmoz entry, removed Link Spam warning display, but included a warning message to editors wanting to add new links per WP:SPAM. If I removed any links that you feel should be restored, please make an entry here on the discussion page. Hopefully this will keep the article cleaner. Thanks! Calltech 23:52, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Those changes were much needed. Thanks. -R. S. Shaw 04:32, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External Link Suggestion!

geocities.com/nozomsiteWP:SPAM

Stop spamming WP. Your link pages don't add any new relevant content WP:EL and the pages are filled with Google Adsense ads WP:COI. You've attempted to add this same link using several User IDs and IP addresses and have been warned on other articles by several editors. WP is not a medium for you to promote your website. Calltech 03:03, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
geocities.com/nozomsiteWP:SPAM Has new and relevant content. Ads are not your business. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.201.222.198 (talk • contribs).
"Ads are not your business"? ...That's a new one. O_o Femto 12:02, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
I thought editing other peoples entries was considered bad form, bordering censorship. From what I can see it was in fact the OP who added this to talk under the title extermal link suggestion, how can that be spamming? Rewriting the links is bad form since it makes it more awkward for others to see what it is all about. This is a talk page where talk is the issue, not having people doing the thinking for others. --18:00, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] No databus!

In contrast to general-purpose CPUs, microcontrollers do not have an address bus or a data bus,

That may be true for some smaller hobby microcontrollers but the majority of microcontrollers used in industry certainly do have address and data buses. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 87.84.74.52 (talk) 12:54, 23 April 2007 (UTC). Please check and remove this inside the page "fjfjfjf fjfgj fgjf jf jfgjffgjturtutrrurt"

[edit] Merge with embedded microprocessor

  • Maybe you can merge embbeded into this article? but it can be a disambiguation problem.
  • No this merge is not appropriate. Embedded microprocessors can be finished chips in embedded systems, or processor cores in any of ASICs, ASSPs or MCUs. An MCU is a distinct class of chip that contains an embedded processor core - one of many
  • I oppose Electron9 14:14, 25 July 2007 (UTC).
  • I oppose as term Microcontroller is something including microprocessor and other "required" periphrels on single chip. Embeded microprocessor or microprocessor is not a big differance except some special characteristics, but micro processor and microcontroller have substancial differances. I think microcontroller should be kept appart.How ever this can be included in topic of embedded systems. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 121.241.96.5 (talk) 07:55, August 21, 2007 (UTC)
  • I oppose, since a microcontroller is a generally accepted term for a chip containing not just a processor core, but also a set of peripherals making it suitable for control applications. An embedded processor is either a chip with just a core on it (like a PPC755), or a core used inside a more complex SoC (Freescale e500 or IBM PPC405 core, or a MIPS24k, or similar core targeting embedded applications). User:JakobE
  • I oppose, for the same reasons as described by JakobE above; a microcontroller is more than a microprocessor, since it must include memory, peripherals, etc. FlyByPC 19:54, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
  • I support merging all the content currently in the embedded microprocessor into the microcontroller article, since (currently) all that content seems to be talking entirely about microcontrollers. I agree 100% with JakobE and FlyByPC that "microprocessor" and "microcontroller" are distinct enough to warrant separate articles. Since I agree with JakobE that "An embedded processor is either a chip with just a core on it ... or a core used inside a more complex SoC", I suggest (after moving all the content into the appropriate article) we make "embedded microprocessor" redirect to the other Wikipedia article with a name that is synonymous with "a chip with just a core on it ... or a core used inside a more complex SoC" -- CPU. --68.0.124.33 (talk) 01:51, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] summary comparison

We need a good summary comparison of the DIY programmable microcontrollers -- the ones such as BASIC Stamp, PICAXE, and Arduino that can be developed for no more than about $100 (if you already have a general-purpose computer to host the development). It should list the power supply voltage range, the minimum power consumption, the max clock speed, the min cost for a development system (quan. one), the min cost for a target system (quan. one), the programming languages, and whether a complete open-source development set is available (no proprietary assembler-compilers etc). And the range of RAM and EEPROM available. (See also [1] and [2]) -69.87.200.77 19:27, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Would this include low-to-medium-range DIP processors, such as the PIC16F84A etc? They are available for a few dollars each, and programmers can be bought for around $20. The Microchip IDE is free. Freescale also has similar development kits, though I'm more familiar with PIC development. I could write a brief overview of getting started with PICs, if this would be helpful.FlyByPC 19:57, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] No full version linux

It should be included in the article that at present, no microcontrollers exist that are capable of running a full scale Linux-version. As such, they cannot be used to make a "computer" from scratch (by soldering components together). Aldough KwikByte has been able to pull this off, for the good reader it is clear that even they had to make adjustments (they tweaked it) so it was possible and is thus no viable alternative [1]. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.246.160.237 (talk) 14:43, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

Is that so? What about:

... or are you going to quibble that they don't really run "full scale Linux" or they can't be built "from scratch" ? Or perhaps that they aren't really "microcontrollers"? --68.0.124.33 (talk) 19:03, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Not only "Is that so?", but "so what?!" springs to mind too; furthermore, is the definition of a "computer" really that it has to run Linux, and are microcontroller based systems not computers? At least some of the processors that 68.0.124.33 identifies are described as microcontrollers in the literature, featuring embedded peripherals and general purpose I/O that is typical of a microcontroller, and they can run Linux. While Linux may not be the most suitable OS for the less powerful microcontrollers, other O/S's exist and can be easily implemented, and applications such as web servers have been developed for even modest PIC microcontrollers.

Moggie2002 (talk) 20:18, 28 March 2008 (UTC)