ROHINI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
EE8551 MICROPROCESSOR AND MICROCONTROLLER
3.7 COMPARISON BETWEEN MICROPROCESSOR AND MICROCONTROLLER
S.No
Microprocessor
Microcontroller
1
A microprocessor is a general
purpose device which is called
a CPU
A microcontroller is a dedicated chip
which is also called single chip
computer.
2
A microprocessor do not
contain onchip I/OPorts,
Timers, Memories etc..
A microcontroller includes RAM,
ROM, serial and parallel interface,
timers, interrupt
circuitry (in addition to CPU) in a
single chip.
3
Microprocessors are most
commonly used as the CPU in
microcomputer systems
Microcontrollers are used in small,
minimum component designs
performing control-oriented
applications.
4
Microprocessor instructions
are mainly nibble or byte
addressable
Microcontroller instructions are both
bit addressable as well as byte
addressable.
5
Microprocessor instruction sets
are mainly intended for
catering to large volumes of
data.
Microcontrollers have instruction sets
catering to the control of inputs and
outputs.
6
Microprocessor based system
design is complex and
expensive
Microcontroller based system design
is rather simple and cost effective
7
The Instruction set of
microprocessor is complex
with large number of
instructions.
The instruction set of a
Microcontroller is very simple with
less number of instructions. For, ex:
PIC microcontrollers have only 35
instructions.
