COMPARISON BETWEEN MICROCONTROLLER(ΜC) &
MICROPROCESSOR (ΜP)
Microcontroller and microprocessor share many common features but at the
same time microcontroller is different from microprocessor in many ways.
Microcontroller integrates a number of the components of a microprocessor
system onto a single microchip and optimized to interact with the outside world
through on-board interfaces, whereas microprocessor is normally optimized to
co-ordinate the flow of information between separate memory and peripheral
devices which are located outside as shown in Fig. 6.2. Connections to a
microprocessor include address, control and data busses that allow it to select
one of its peripherals and send to or retrieve data from it.
Microprocessor is typically designed for general purpose applications
whereas microcontroller is a specialized form of microprocessor that is designed
to be used in embedded applications. Microcontroller incorporates all the
features of microprocessor along with the added features of peripheral d evices.
So we can say that the micro controller is nothing but a microprocessor system
with all support devices integrated inside a single chip. However microcontroller
cannot be used in place of microprocessor and using a microprocessor is not
advised in place of a microcontroller as it makes the application quite costly.
(a) Microprocessor based system (b) A single Microcontroller IC.
Fig.6.2 structure of microprocessor based system and microcontroller.
Table 6.1 Difference between microcontroller and microprocessor
