What’s the use of MCU?

What is MCU? What’s the use of MCU? This is an interesting question, because no one can give a concept recognized by everyone. What is MCU? MCU, also known as single-chip microcontroller, is not a chip to complete a certain logic function, but integrates a computer system into a chip. To sum up: a chip becomes a computer. In fact, this concept is not recognized. The counter example is DSP, arm and other processors. Why not call them MCU? Ha ha, in fact, there is no need to find a clear concept to analyze what MCU is. If you want to understand it, just get a single chip microcomputer (preferably 8051 single chip microcomputer) to do a small project, and you will know what MCU is.
Now college courses, as long as the major is related to electricity, are inseparable from MCU courses, and most of them are 8051 series. When students are doing relevant course design and writing papers related to single chip microcomputer, they always like to take “single chip microcomputer” as the keyword, which is designed to the English name of “single chip microcomputer”. The English of MCU can use microcontroller, microprocessors and MCU. However, personally, I think it is not good to take MCU as the keyword. You can use specific single chip microcomputer types such as 8051, AVR, MSP430 and pic to replace it.
What’s the use of MCU?
Single chip microcomputer is very useful. Living in modern cities, you must be inseparable from single chip microcomputer. In those years, our predecessors wanted to develop a simple logic control product. They need to use a lot of separation devices. This is not only troublesome, but also low reliability. Now they can easily do it with a single chip microcomputer of a few yuan.
Single chip microcomputer has high reliability, miniaturization and intelligence (we can complete different control work as long as we write different programs). Single chip microcomputer has become an intelligent control tool widely used in the field of industrial control and has deeply penetrated into our daily life – from toy and household appliance industries to vehicle and ship electronic systems, SCM can be seen in the fields of measurement and testing, industrial process control, mechanical electronics, financial electronics, commercial electronics, office automation, industrial robots, military and aerospace. Here are some application examples:

  1. Intelligent products: the combination of single-chip microcomputer and traditional mechanical products simplifies the structure of traditional mechanical products and makes the control intelligent, forming a new generation of mechatronics products. For example, the fax typewriter adopts single chip microcomputer, which can replace nearly a thousand mechanical devices; The sewing machine is controlled by single chip microcomputer, which can perform multi-functional automatic operation, automatic speed regulation and control the selection of sewing patterns.
  2. Intelligent instrument: the original measurement and control instrument is improved with single-chip microcomputer, which can make the instrument digital, intelligent, multifunctional and comprehensive. The problems of error correction and linearization in measuring instruments can also be solved.
  3. Measurement and control system: various industrial control systems, environmental control systems and data control systems can be designed with single chip microcomputer microprocessor, such as greenhouse artificial climate control, automatic control of sluice, automatic control of electroplating production line, electromechanical and hydraulic regulation system of steam turbine, etc.
  4. CNC control machine: in the current simple control machine of digital control system, the use of single chip microcomputer can improve reliability, enhance its function and reduce cost. For example, in the two coordinate continuous control system, the system composed of 805l single chip microcomputer is used to replace the Z-80 group platform system. Under the condition of completing the same function, the program length can be reduced by 50% and the execution speed is improved. The back port of single-chip microcomputer may change its structural mode. For example, the control machine is separated from servo control. The stepping motor controller composed of single-chip microcomputer can reduce the burden of numerical control machine.
  5. Intelligent interface: in microcomputer system, especially in large industrial measurement and control system, in addition to peripheral devices (printer, keyboard, disk, CRT), there are many external communication, acquisition, multi-channel distribution management, drive control and other interfaces. If these peripheral devices and interfaces are completely managed by the host, it is bound to overload the host and reduce the execution speed. If the single chip microcomputer is used for interface control and management, the single chip microcomputer microprocessor and the host can work in parallel, which greatly improves the execution speed of the system. For example, in a large data acquisition system, using a single chip microcomputer to control the analog-to-digital conversion interface can not only improve the acquisition speed, but also preprocess the data, such as digital filtering, linearization, error correction and so on. In the communication interface, single chip microcomputer can be used for data coding and decoding, distribution management, receiving / sending control, etc.
    After writing so much and copying so much on the network, do you know what MCU is?

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