ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the microcontroller's interface to digital components and peripherals. This theme is addressed at two different hierarchy levels. First, the chapter discusses interfacing to a couple of typical embedded systems components, such as EPROMs and RAMs. Second, at a higher level, it investigates the digital interface between embedded systems and the outside world. The chapter explains how to increase the number of available I/O lines. It introduces two serial interfaces for interaction between embedded computers and other systems or peripherals. The chapter designs a single board computer. The single board computer has its own importance as both a control device and a development tool. In addition, the small-scale computer design can be viewed as a jumpboard to the more sophisticated case studies. Finally, the chapter discusses how to organise the interface to typical digital actuators, stepper motors.
