Table of Contents

What is the criteria for choosing a microcontroller?

What is the criteria for choosing a microcontroller? A microcontroller (MCU for microcontroller unit) is a small computer on a single metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals.

Microcontrollers are used in automatically controlled products and devices, such as automobile engine control systems, implantable medical devices, remote controls, office machines, appliances, power tools, toys and other embedded systems.

Key factors

Power efficiency.

There is a compromise between preparing execution and force utilization: a gadget with higher handling force will burn-through more energy. Consequently, if your microcontroller is remote and running on a battery-powered battery, you need to weigh forfeiting power proficiency against getting seriously preparing force, or the other way around. Some force effective microcontrollers incorporate STMicroelectronics’ STM32 arrangement, NXP’s Kinetis L arrangement, Renesas’ H8 Super Low Power arrangement, Cypress’ PSoC 6 arrangement, Microchip’s Extreme Low Power PIC arrangement, and Texas Instruments’ MSP430 arrangement.

Temperature tolerance.

Depending upon the climate in which your microcontrollers work, you may need gadgets that withstand outrageous temperature. There will be a compromise between temperature resilience and cost. Some temperature-open minded microcontrollers incorporate STMicroelectronics’ STM32F103 arrangement, NXP’s Kinetis EA arrangement, Renesas’ RX24T and RX24U, Infineon’s XMC arrangement and AURIX™ arrangement, Microchip’s: PIC and AVR microcontrollers, and Texas Instruments’ MSP430F2619S-HT.

Security.

Hacking which targets IoT gadgets is rising, a danger that is particularly pertinent to microcontrollers utilized in autos. Accordingly, microcontroller creators are carrying out layers of safety like cryptography and actual security. Presently, clients can buy microcontrollers that have been ensured to the most recent security principles or use MCUs with on-chip secure equipment. Organizations that offer independent security MCUs incorporate STMicroelectronics (ST33 arrangement), Renesas (AE-5 and RS-4 arrangement), Infineon (OPTIGA Trust and OPTIGA TPM), Cypress (PSoC 64), Microchip (32-cycle and 16-digit MCUs for Security), and Texas Instruments (MSP430 arrangement). Organizations that proposal on-chip security equipment incorporate NXP (Kinetis arrangement) and Infineon (AURIX).

Hardware architecture.

A microcontroller’s bundling straightforwardly impacts its size and execution. Double in-line bundling is the most well-known sort. Little framework semiconductors have a little impression, and quad level gets take together more territories however less upward space. Wafer level chip-scales are a lot more modest and pack in really handling power yet are more costly to make. Level no-lead bundles are better in heat dispersion. Ball matrix clusters (BGAs) have superior because of the reduced bundle yet additionally cost more to create.

Processing power.

A multicore processor will be significantly faster, but it will also consume more energy. Also, will a graphics processing unit (GPU) be necessary

Memory

The amount of memory (RAM and ROM) you need will depend on the programs you will be running. More programs need more random access memory (RAM). In addition, a GPU will require not only more RAM but faster read/write time as well.

Hardware interface.

The nature of the task will dictate the need for hardware interfaces such as USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio, video, or camera

Software architecture .

Some microcontrollers are operable on various OSs, and others are not. In the event that you need to scale, it is smarter to utilize a similar programming design to build interoperability.

Cost.

Microcontrollers fall within a wide price range, from a hundred units for a few dollars to a few dollars per unit. If you want to scale, you need to consider the overall cost versus the individual performance power of a microcontroller.

Versions of micro controller

The Microchip PIC microcontroller range looks really daunting at first, with lots of 8, 16 and 32 bit devices to choose from.
There are different series of 8-bit PIC microcontrollers- PIC10F, PIC12F, PIC16F and PIC18F, all with different features and price bands. The PIC10F and PIC12F are the cheapest and generally have less memory, smaller pin counts and less peripherals.

PIC18F series are the most sophisticated, with more instructions and are better suited to C compilers but they are the most expensive.
DIP package
- PIC16F arrangement are the most well known as they have been around the longest and have the greatest code library on the Internet. A great deal of the accessible code and schematics has been composed for PIC16F877 yet this is a helpless decision today as they are an extremely old plan.
- The PIC16F887 takes some beating since it can utilize PIC16F877 projects yet more up to date PIC microcontrollers are likewise worth a look, unquestionably whenever you have acquired insight. As of late, Microchip have delivered another scope of PIC16F microntrollers, what start with a one, for instance PIC16F1519 and PIC16F1789.
- PIC18F series microcontrollers have more features and a different instruction set – instructions are 16-bit wide instead of 14-bit like PIC16F. They need a different C compiler that is included as a limited version in MPLAB.