Книга: Introduction to Microprocessors and Microcontrollers

The microcontroller

As the home computer was being developed, the headlines were only interested in the ever-increasing speed and capability of the microprocessors. However, behind the scenes, the microcontroller was selling in greater numbers with little publicity. There is not much in the way of attention-grabbing headlines in a microcontroller being fitted into a video recorder.

The mammoth engines of today’s computers were just not required for many uses in the real world. We are the limiting factor when it comes to everyday uses of microelectronics. We may want our computers to work faster but we still work at the same speed that our ancestors. Just how fast do we want a vending machine to work? We want it to work at the same speed today as it did yesterday, or ten years ago. After all we cannot press the buttons any faster and we don’t want the coffee to fly down the chute at ten time the previous speed.

If we want any change, we may like it to be more reliable. Is the Pentium 4 any more reliable than the Z80? I doubt it. We would certainly want it to be cheaper and use less power, and not require a fan if it thinks about something.

The trend is to rethink what we really want and the answer in the majority of cases is something much closer to the present day microcontroller.

We will be coming back to microcontrollers in more detail in Chapters 15 and 16.

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