Before we go further, it is good to have an understanding of how a microcontroller and a microprocessor are different:
Microprocessor |
Microcontroller |
Only CPU; other peripherals are interfaced via the CPU bus |
CPU + (Flash) Memory + RAM + ROM + I/O + Timers + UARTS + ADC + DAC and so on on a single chip |
General purpose |
Single purpose |
High processing power |
Low processing power |
Power hungry |
Can work on a battery |
Runs an OS (for example, Linux) |
Runs on a tight loop approach and can support OSs such as Real Time Operating System (RTOS) |
In a typical IoT scenario, smart devices do only one job, for example reading the door sensor data and sending it to the cloud. For ...