Parts of a GP Computer

(Microcomputer)

Contains separate
●

Microproces
sor(s)
● Memory
● Peripheral
(I/O) device
HW
• serial
port
• parallel
port
• USB
EMB - AVR port
11
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Introducing Microcontrollers

A microprocessor is a central processing unit

(CPU) on a single chip.
When a microprocessor and associated
support circuitry, peripheral I/O components
and memory (program as well as data) were
put together to form a small computer
specifically for data acquisition and control
applications, it was called a microcomputer.

EMB - AVR 22
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Introducing Microcontrollers

When the components that make a

microcomputer were put together on a single
chip of silicon, it was called the microcontroller.

EMB - AVR 33
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 Microcontrollers

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A microcontroller
interfaces to external EMB - AVR 44
devices with a
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How does a Microcomputer
differ from a Microcontroller?

EMB - AVR 55
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Protus “motherboard”

EMB - AVR 66
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How does a Microcomputer
differ from a Microcontroller?
Microcontroller
“1-chip” solution (monolithic)
Built-in components (depending on variant)
● Microprocessor
● Memory: RAM/SRAM, EEPROM/EPROM/PROM/ROM
● Peripheral devices
– serial/parallel ports
– digital I/O ports
– Analog/Digital converter
– Timer/Counter

EMB - AVR 77
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Inside an IC package

CS-280 88
Dr. Mark L. Hornick
Inside an IC package
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CS-280 99
Dr. Mark L. Hornick
What does AVR RISC mean?

The acronym AVR has been reported to stand for:

Advanced Virtual RISC and also for the chip's designers:
Alf-Egil Bogen and Vegard Wollan who designed the basic
architecture at the Norwegian Institute of Technology.

RISC stands for reduced instruction set computer.

CPU design with a reduced instruction set as well as a

simpler set of instructions (like for example PIC and AVR)

EMB - AVR 1010

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 A little history

The PIC (Programmable Interrupt Controller) appeared around 1980.

→ 8 bit bus

→ executes 1 instruction in 4 clk cycles

→ Harvard architecture

AVR (1994)

→ 8 bit bus

→ one instruction per cycle

→ Harvard architecture

EMB - AVR 1111

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AVR 8-Bit RISC High Performance

True single cycle execution

→ single-clock-cycle-per-instruction execution
→ PIC microcontrollers take 4 clock cycles per instruction
One MIPS (mega instructions per second) per MHz
→ up to 20 MHz clock
32 general purpose registers
→ provide flexibility and performance when using high level languages
→ prevents access to RAM
Harvard architecture
→ separate bus for program and data memory

EMB - AVR 1212

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AVR 8-Bit RISC Low Power
Consumption

1.8 to 5.5V operation

→ will use all the energy stored in your batteries
A variety of sleep modes
→ AVR Flash microcontrollers have up to six
different sleep modes
→ fast wake-up from sleep modes
Software controlled frequency

EMB - AVR 1313

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AVR 8-Bit RISC Compatibility

AVR® Flash microcontrollers share a single core

architecture
→ use the same code for all families
→ 1 Kbytes to 256 Kbytes of code
→8 to 100 pins
→ all devices have
Internal oscillators

EMB - AVR 1414

EMB - AVR
 AVR

Modern RISC architecture: Compact and FAST.

Tuned for high level languages.

Consistent architecture across entire line.

Small AVR are subsets of larger chips: Same hardware and code
works across all chips.

I/O structure reduces need for external components.

Flash based, ultra trivial downloading of code.

EMB - AVR 1515

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 AVR RISC Architecture

Single Cycle Instructions: 8mhz = 8mips.

Large register file (32).

Every register an accumulator.

3 index register pairs

Register & IO are mapped in SRAM space.

EMB - AVR 1616

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 Typical Hardware Support

Internal or External Oscillator/Clock

Brown Out Detector

One or more timers

Two or more PWM

One or more USART

I2C

EMB - AVR 1717

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 Tools

Atmel Studio: IDE & Simulator/debugger.

BASCOM: Basic compiler & IDE with programmer.

GNU C compiler (free, very high quality).

Third party C compilers vary from cheap to very expensive.

FLASH programmers are trivial to make.

EMB - AVR 1818

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Typical Hardware Support

t Real time clock

t 10bit ADC

t Analog Comparator

t External interrupts

t Pulse timing capture

t EEPROM

t USB/CAN/RF

EMB - AVR 1919

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AVR Architecture

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EMB - AVR 2020

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 Atmel Atmega32
l Central Processing Unit
l Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
performs the actual arithmetic,
logical, and bit-functions
l Memory – SRAM, EEPROM,
Flash, etc.
l Clock circuit – internal/external
l I/O – Input/Output; video, serial,
parallel, USB, SCSI, etc.

CS-280 2121
Dr. Mark L. Hornick
 EMB - AVR 2222
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Atmel Atmega32 highlights

An 8-bit microcontroller
Native data size is 1 byte

16-bit data addressing

Up to 64 kB data memory can be accessed

3 separate on-chip memories (Harvard architecture)

2KB SRAM (for data)
1KB EEPROM (for persistent data storage)
32KB Flash organized in 16-bit words (16KWords) for program code

I/O ports A-D

Digital input, output
Analog input
Serial/Parallel
Pulse accumulator

EMB - AVR 2323

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