It used to be that the number of different microcontroller chips available to the hobbyist was pretty limited. You got to use whatever you could manage to buy from the mail-order chip dealer, and that narrowed down the choice to a small number of chips.
But times have changed. Digikey lists over 16000 different line items under a "microcontroller" search. Which one should a hobbyist with no particular prior experience choose?
Here are some hints. These are particularly aimed at someone trying to pick a microcontroller to use for the first time at least partially as a learning experience, rather than someone who wants to accomplish a particular task.
Update 2009-01-28: This Instructable was recently mentioned in some popular blogs, and is getting a bunch of new readers. Be sure to read the "comments" made by other readers and the responses to them; there's a lot of value in those comments...
step 1What IS a "Microcontroller" ?
If you ever took a very introductory computer course, you probably learned about the major components of ANY computer:A Central Processing Unit or CPU. The part that actually performs logic and mathMemory. Where the computer stores data and instructionsInput and Output or I/O. How the computer…
step 2Show Stoppers
There are a number design considerations that might immediately reduce your number of choices a great deal. Programability and Reprogramability: At this point in time, I would say that a hobbyist should only consider microcontrollers that have internal flash or eeprom program memory and can be …
step 3Thoughts about Architectures
The "architecture" of a microcontroller refers to the philosophy of the internal implementation, sort of. It includes details like how many "registers" there are, and how "general purpose" those registers are, whether code can execute out of data memory, whether the peripherals are treated like …
step 4Thoughts about Hardware Tools
Minimally, you'll need some sort of programmer to load the program into the microcontroller. These vary wildly in cost. It's pretty common for manufacturers to offer some low-cost programmer so that people can "evaluate" their microcontrollers without risking too much cash (or requiring director…
step 5Thoughts about Software Tools
All of the microcontrollers mentioned here have some level of standard tools (at least an assembler) provided by the manufacturer. Most have "Integrated Development Environments" (IDE) that allow integrated use of an editor (that you won't like) with the assmebler, some compilers, and a simulato…
step 6The $100 Paradox
If your budget extends as far as $100 for the computing hardware, it's worth noting that you have bought your way into an interesting realm of "bang for buck." "About" $100 will buy: - Relatively fancy development board for most micros; covering a wide range of processors and performances (incl…
step 7Microchip PIC Microcontrollers
The Microchip PIC microcontrollers were perhaps the first that were marketed to the hobbyist and student community, one of the first microcontrollers to be offered in a relatively small package (18 pin DIP) and one of the first to implement flash or eeprom program memory (in the PIC16C84 in 1993)…
step 8Resources for Microchip PIC
Microchip the ManufacturerPICList mailing list repository of knowlege[http://techtrain.microchip.com/masters2004/(kgmnvafutocq2355egt11231)/downloads/classlist.htm Microchip Masters Conference 2004 Downloads] Tutorials and presentations[http://techtrain.microchip.com/masters2005/(kgmnvafutocq235…
step 9Atmel AVR
As near as I can tell, Atmel came along and decided to steal some of Microchip's business by offering "similar but better" chips. Some things they did right, some things they didn't do so well. But the Atmel AVR chips have also gained a lot of popularity amoung hobbyists, and we get to cash in o…
step 10Resources for Atmel AVR
Atmel the ManufacturerAVR Freaks Despite the amateurish name, this is a REALLY good site.PIC vs. AVR smackdown A comparison between PIC and AVRAVR Butterfly The AVR "Butterfly" evaluation board is a phenomenal value at the current price of $20.Another Butterfly vendorGCC supports all but th…
step 11Intel 8051 and variants
Intel invented the 8051 architecture a long time ago, and garnered some hobbyist interest with the 8052BASIC chip, which contained a basic interpretter in masked ROM and allowed one to build a very small BASIC based computer. Since then the architecture has been licensed and/or stolen by MANY v…
step 12Resources for 8051
8052.com site Massive amounts of info.Atmel 8051s Atmel does 8051s as well as AVR and ARMNXP (Philips) 8051 89LPC controllers.RAMTron micros 8051s with FRAM non-volatile memorySilicon Labs Neat 8051s including high performance ADCs. Also the smallest 8051; 11pins in a 3x3mm QFN. Cheap US…
step 13Freescale (Motorola) 68HC908, HCS08
Motorola (well, now Freescale) has several lines of popular microcontrollers, the most accessible of which seems to be the flash-based 68HC908 and/or HCS08 or RS08 (all the same or very similar architectures, with some renaming and assorted minor differences) series. Traditionally, Motorola chip…
step 14Texas Instrument MSP430 micropower Microcontrollers
Texas Instruments garnered some interest when they introduced (bought?) their MSP430 series of extemely low-power microcontrollers. Until recently, most of the MSP430s were only available in assorted hobbyist-unfriendly SMT packages, but a couple of recent chips have been introduced in DIP pac…
step 15ARM microcontrollers
ARM is a company that designs microprocessor architetcures, and licenses them to manufacturers who build actual chips. The ARM is a 32bit true RISC architecture, and scales upwards to CPUs with floating point hardware and clocks speeds of several hundred MHz. If you have a palmtop, it probably …
step 16Other Interesting Microcontrollers
- Cypress PSOC - Renesas (Hitachi) H8, M6
step 17Modules, bootloaders, and "hidden" microcontrollers
A number of companies have made a business of selling "modules" , usually incorporating some sort of microcontroller and some of its support components with a high-level-lanaguge development environment, some sort of chip-programming capability, and communications. This gets rid of the need for …
step 18Zilog Z8 and Z80 chips
Zilog (inventor of the famous Z80 microprocessor chip) has updated versions of the Z80 in microcontroller form, and also updated versions of the even older Z8 architecture. Both have flash memory and some interesting peripherals , and inexpensive "evaluation boards" that include a C compiler. A…
step 19Win Valuable Prizes
Periodically, many of the manufacturers of microcontrollers will sponsor "Design Contests" where engineers all over will be challenged to come up with a particularly clever design using a particular microcontroller. The idea is to entice engineers into looking at THEIR chips even if they're alre…
step 20Try it Online: Virtual Labs
Tech Online is a pretty good website for technical News in general, and they've apparently implemented something they call "Virtual Labs" that will allow you to try out a vendor's development system over the internet with nothing but a browser on your end. I used this for the first time as part …
step 21Free Stuff!
In the old days, companies would mail datasheets and databooks to just about anyone who asked. The web has done away with the need for most of that, and many vendors seem to have taken the money they saved on postage and used it to make their sample program more accessible.The way "free samples"…
sumber : http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-choose-a-MicroController/
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