[Yusadolat]

what is MicrocontrollerProgramming? why it is necessary?

[Yusadolat]

what is MicrocontrollerProgramming? why it is necessary?

[The Real Slim Shady]

A. Do not "YELL" in your thread titles

B. Use descriptive thread titles. "Help" is unacceptable.

I dont want to see either from your again.

[The Real Slim Shady]

A. Do not "YELL" in your thread titles

B. Use descriptive thread titles. "Help" is unacceptable.

I dont want to see either from your again.

[alok9shm]

If you knew what is a microcontroller, you should not have asked this question. So, you should know what a microcontroller is. You google that out for the exact definition.
I'll give you the rough info.

Its an embedded system in itself, i mean to say, a processor, a memory, etc all in a single module. For example the microcontroller chip in tv remotes, toys, digital appliances, etc.
Now take the example of a tv remote control. If you press 1, the remote sends a specific signal to the tv, pressing mute, will send a signal to the tv that mutes the volume, other buttons do specific jobs. Now, this thing needs to be programmed in the memory or ROM of microcontroller present in the remote control to make it work the way it does. And this programming is what you call Microcontroller programming. Hope you got the idea.
Roughly, microcontrollers are a small size computers (you can call it a computer, isn't it?) that does only a specific task. Like, in the case of Remote controls, it sends out signals corresponding to the pressed buttons. That all it does. So, its a kind of small size, limited/specific function, computer, that takes input, processes it, and gives the output. It contains a ROM, where we need to feed the instruction regarding how this device will work. This set of instruction is a program code [in C, PASCAL, BASIC, or Assembly etc]. Mostly it remains unchanged in a device. Writing these programs into the microcontroller ROM is Microcontroller programming.

And why is it necessary? Do I need to tell that too? A device will not work if it doesn't have a program that tells it how to work. To make an electronic device work, a program is required, and thus comes the need of microcontroller programming.

[alok9shm]

If you knew what is a microcontroller, you should not have asked this question. So, you should know what a microcontroller is. You google that out for the exact definition.
I'll give you the rough info.

Its an embedded system in itself, i mean to say, a processor, a memory, etc all in a single module. For example the microcontroller chip in tv remotes, toys, digital appliances, etc.
Now take the example of a tv remote control. If you press 1, the remote sends a specific signal to the tv, pressing mute, will send a signal to the tv that mutes the volume, other buttons do specific jobs. Now, this thing needs to be programmed in the memory or ROM of microcontroller present in the remote control to make it work the way it does. And this programming is what you call Microcontroller programming. Hope you got the idea.
Roughly, microcontrollers are a small size computers (you can call it a computer, isn't it?) that does only a specific task. Like, in the case of Remote controls, it sends out signals corresponding to the pressed buttons. That all it does. So, its a kind of small size, limited/specific function, computer, that takes input, processes it, and gives the output. It contains a ROM, where we need to feed the instruction regarding how this device will work. This set of instruction is a program code [in C, PASCAL, BASIC, or Assembly etc]. Mostly it remains unchanged in a device. Writing these programs into the microcontroller ROM is Microcontroller programming.

And why is it necessary? Do I need to tell that too? A device will not work if it doesn't have a program that tells it how to work. To make an electronic device work, a program is required, and thus comes the need of microcontroller programming.

[Frooxius]

Since I've done some work with microcontrollers (MCU's for short) myself, I think I could give you some key points about them.

There are several crucial differences between CPU's and MCU's:

• Price - You can get MCU's way cheaper than a CPU (even for a dollar or two)
  
• Power consumption - MCU's use very little power compared to CPU's. For example it can consume 10 mW, compared to a 50 W (50000 mW) CPU, or even less! This makes it ideal to run them even on battery or in places where you don't want to waste power
  
• Harvard Architecture - They have separate memory for program and data, while the program memory is a non-volatile one (data don't disappear without power). This allows the MCU to have the program (machine code) stored at all the time and immediately accessible - as soon as it's powered on it can start running the program without having to load it from harddrive or some other media. This also serves as a protection against errors
  
• Integrated peripherals - While CPU's usually are just... CPU's (a processor), MCU's have many other devices integrated on the chip: ROM, RAM, IO interfaces, serial, parallel interfaces, timers, modems and so on. There are dozens of thousands varieties of them and you simply pick one that has all (or most) of the stuff you need for given task. Your normal CPU usually has to go in some kind of motherboard and have variety of other chips and devices connected in to communicate with its environment.
  
• Power - MCU's are much MUCH slower and simpler than CPU's, so they're not that good for computationally intensive tasks - you want to use CPU for that, but they're great for specific purposes: You write a program for them, plug them into your circuit and let them do their work. This is also advantage for MCU's though, because they don't make much heat and rarely need any cooling at all.
  

You can find MCU's everywhere. Essentially they're tiny, cheap minicomputers that can do variety of jobs in a circuit - usually controlling other electronics and modern households can easily have dozens of them in various devices.

They can be in your digital clock, they can be in your fridge/freezer, they can be in electric oven, they can be in digital weighs, in the cars, they're even in your keyboard (reading the keypresses, encoding them and sending to the computer) or mouse for example, or other controllers and peripherals. You can probably find some of them in the computer itself.

Imagine if each of these devices used CPU's - large, power hungry, making a lot of waste heat and expensive. Not to mention overpowered.

MCU's are powerful anywhere you need to control something in more or less complex way: You pick one or more, write program for them and make them interact and send "commands" to other pieces of the circuit the way you need and want - programming them is what gives you control over the behavior of the device you're making.