Understanding the concept of microcontroller based systems to choose the best hardware for applications.

Abstract

Today’s technology has been evolved into stand-alone systems which can do all necessary process by itself without any additional hardware. Advance microcontrollers have become microcomputers that is also known as single board computers. These systems take their power from powerful microcontrollers. These microcontrollers have many integrated circuits onboard so they can achieve many different process by themselves. They are being used in many applications from powerful industrial device to simple home appliance. On today’s market, there are many different microcontrollers with different structure and capabilities. Therefore, understanding the concepts related to the microcontrollers is really important for choosing the best hardware. This paper presents main concepts of microcontrollers and reveals basis of their structure. Their components and abilities have been discussed and comparation of well-known single board computers has been given.