【Microcontroller Fundamentals】——From the perspective of history, understand the five elements of microcontrollers

     To talk about the history of microcontrollers, we have to mention 51 years ago in 1971, when Intel Corporation of the United States developed the first 4-bit microcontroller called i4004d. It was ordered by a Japanese company BUSICOM and used in its calculator design. It was later successfully sold as a general-purpose microcontroller due to a contract change. Subsequently, Intel developed 8-bit microcontrollers such as "i8008", "i8080A" and "i8085". Following this, Intel developed a 16-bit microcontroller "8086". Since then, the microcontroller has opened up a variety of development path.

     As a leading manufacturer in the semiconductor industry, Toshiba is also one of the first manufacturers to get involved in microcontroller products. Since the United States considered the electronic control unit as a response to exhaust gas regulations at that time, in 1973, Toshiba developed a 12-bit microcontroller TLCS-12 as an on-board engine controller for Ford. Since then, Toshiba has successively developed advanced microcontrollers ranging from 4-bit to 32-bit or higher, and has been working on the development of advanced microcontroller products.

     Microcontrollers have gradually been widely used since their birth, especially with the continuous development of semiconductor technology, the emergence of large-scale integrated circuits (LSI, generally refers to ICs composed of 1000 or more components) has made micro The controller can implement the functions of a computer. Today, microcontrollers, as the core control unit of some electronic systems, control the operation of the entire system. Similar to the human brain, it inputs information through eyes and ears, calculates and memorizes through thinking, and uses its own body parts to speak and write results. Finally, the brain and nerves control the unified movement of the entire body. In the microcontroller, the information input by devices such as switches, keyboards, and sensors is also stored, calculated, and the results are output as data. Therefore, the microcontroller must also meet the five basic elements of input, calculation, storage, output and control.

     Since the development of microcontrollers, with the continuous changes in market demand, new innovations in design and support have been brought every year, but the return itself is still inseparable from the above five basic elements.