ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the structure and resources found in typical microcontrollers. It introduces the concept of a microcontroller and explores the differences between microcontrollers and microprocessors. The chapter deals with the description of the resources that are available in microcontrollers, and focuses on how they differ from the resources available in microprocessors. It describes the John von Neumann and Harvard architectures as well as how the reduced instruction set computer and complex instruction set computer architectures differ in their instruction sets. The chapter discusses the most common microcontrollers and lists their manufacturers. Microcontrollers combine the fundamental resources available in a microcomputer such as the central processing unit, memory, and input/output resources in a single chip. The watchdog timer is a resource that can be found in most microcontrollers. Reset is an action that initializes microprocessors and microcontrollers. This initialization happens when a specific signal is applied to a specific pin.
