AN887 Datasheet, PDF (4/12 Pages) STMicroelectronics – MICROCONTROLLERS MADE EASY

MICROCONTROLLERS MADE EASY
1 TYPICAL MICROCONTROLLER APPLICATIONS
Microcontrollers are frequently found in home appliances (microwave oven, refrigerators, tel-
evision and VCRs, stereos), computers and computer equipment (laser printers, modems,
disk drives), cars (engine control, diagnostics, climate control), environmental control (green-
house, factory, home), instrumentation, aerospace, and thousands of other uses. In many
items, more than one processor can be found.
Figure 5. Typical MCU Applications
TV SET
CAR RADIO
BODY CONTROLLER
KEYBOARD
TELEPHONE SET
MONITOR
DASHBOAD
FRONT PANEL
REMOTE
CONTROL
BATTERY CHARGER
DIMMER
SWITCH
REMOTE
METER
KEYLESS
While microprocessors target the maximum processing performance, the purpose of micro-
controllers is to implement a set of control function in the most cost effective way. Although
controlling a microwave oven with a Pentium^(TM) might seem an attractive idea, it can be easily
accomplished with an ST6.
In a typical application, the MCU has to manage several tasks according to their priority or to
the occurrence of external events (new command send by the keyboard, external temperature
rise,...)
Figure 6. Example of MCU Task Management.
KEYBOARD
SCANNING
CENTRAL MCU
FUNCTION
INFORMATION
DISPLAY
MEASURE
TEMPERATURE
CHANGE
TEMPERATURE
VR02101E
The ability to manage control tasks by hardware or by software is the main performance indi-
cator for MCUs.
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