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Jack		 Microcontrollers View All
I've heard a lot about microcontrollers which are used in many different devices, from children's toys and clock radios to cars and aeroplanes. What are the main features of these devices, why are they so popular and how easy are they to use?

16 years ago - 7 months left to answer. - 1 response - Report Abuse
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Richard B
 Microcontrollers are small programmable devices which are essentially mini-computers. What's nice about them is that they can be reprogrammed many times and don't cost very much, which makes the design process fast and economical. Despite their low cost, they generally come with a variety of useful features.

An example would be a microcontroller like the AVR ATmega16 which has pulse-width modulation functionality, three onboard timers, an analog-to-digital converter, a number of input/output ports as well as many other functions. They can also be linked up to other devices using serial or parallel ports, so their applications are very broad indeed.

The two families of microcontrollers that are arguably the most popular in the world are AVR (part of Atmel) and PIC (made by Microchip Technology). Searching for either on Google returns lots of information.

16 years ago

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