2/10/22, 12:06 PM Step by Step Guide to Microcontroller Programming - HardwareBee

This is a step by step guide for those who want to start with Microcontroller Programming. The
article starts with introducing a few basic terms that will be used in the guide, a list of tools,
programming languages and at end, an example of a downloadable code with a step by step guide
that you could use to practice microcontroller programming.
 
But before diving into Microcontroller Programing. Let’s define first two basic terms: Hardware and
Software.
 
Hardware consists of the physical components in the system such as a chips, keyboard, a mouse,
a monitor, memories, I/O devices. Hardware is harder to develop compared to software, it has to
be designed for very specific applications, and it is a very efficient and perfect solution in high-
speed systems.
 
Software is the non-physical components or the applications that run on the hardware such as
operating systems, computer games and network applications. Software is highly configurable,
easy and faster to be developed, also very cheap compared to hardware.
 
What is a Microcontroller

 
To understand what a microcontroller is, we need to understand first what a microprocessor or a
CPU is (Central Processing Unit). A CPU is a heart of any computer system, it is like the human
brain when performing a task. We can basically divide it into two essential parts:
Control unit: This unit is used to fetch the data from the memory.
Execution unit: This unit is used to execute or run the data.
 
Types of Processors

 
There are many categories of processors such as general-purpose processors, application specific
system processor, and multi-processor system. General purpose processor has many types:
 
▪ Microprocessor
▪ Microcontroller
▪ Embedded processor
▪ Digital signal processor
 
Microprocessor is a semiconductor device or a computer on a chip, but not a fully functional
computer. Its central processor unit contains
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2/10/22, 12:06 PM Step by Step Guide to Microcontroller Programming - HardwareBee

 
▪ ALU
▪ Program counters
▪ Registers
▪ Other circuits (clocking time, interrupt)

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