Development board vs microcontroller
● Definition of development board and microcontroller
Development board definition: Development board is a circuit used to develop an embedded system, including a series of hardware components such as a central processing unit (CPU), memory, input devices, output devices, data paths/buses, and external resource interfaces.
Development boards are generally customized by embedded system developers themselves according to development needs, and can also be researched and designed by development board programmer and users themselves. The development board kit is for beginners to understand and learn the hardware and software of the system. At the same time, some development boards also provide the basic integrated development environment, software source code and hardware schematic diagram.
Different specific uses development board will vary, but generally require connection to a computer, and some require serial port drivers. Common development boards include 51(8051 development board) (https://www.development-board.com/8051-development-board), development board ARM, FPGA, and DSP development boards.
Microcontroller also known as single-chip microcomputer, it is an integrated circuit chip. It uses VLSI technology to integrate central processing unit CPU, random access memory RAM, ROM, various I/O ports, interrupt system, timing/ Functions such as counters on a single silicon chip. Microcontrollers are used in a wide range of fields, such as smart instruments, real-time industrial control, communication equipment, navigation systems, household appliances, etc. Once the microcontroller is used in various products, it can play the role of upgrading products. The microcontroller is an 8-bit microcontroller chip, which is the core device of the 51 development board(https://www.development-board.com/8051-development-board).
● Functions of microcontroller and development board kit
Microcontroller: It can act as a burner (that is, a programmer), write our own program into the microcontroller, and it can run the program according to our requirements and realize function control. We only need to design the circuit and write the microcontroller program to achieve the effect we want, so as to control various electronic devices at home.
Development board uses: You can use some hardware to do some microcontroller experiments on the development board, the circuit on the development board kit has been designed, so you don’t need to build the circuit yourself, this is very helpful for beginners.
● Development board and microcontroller difference
A microcontroller is just a chip that can be programmed, it is equivalent to a single-chip computer, but it needs to add some peripheral circuits to realize common functions. While the development board is an embedded board for R&D, research, and learning. The microcontroller can be inserted into the development board. On the microcontroller based development board, many supporting hardware circuits have been provided, for example: development board touch screen LED display or LCD display, keyboard , LED indicator light, RS232 interface or USB interface, you can directly download the MCU code written on the computer to the microcontroller, and use the program written by the user to control the hardware work on the development board.
The microcontroller development board is a circuit board composed of the microcontroller main chip and some commonly used electronic devices, which is convenient for beginners to learn and experiment. The commonly used peripherals on development board tools are equipped with LED lights, 6 or 8 digital tubes, independent buttons, and matrix. Buttons, liquid crystal display or its interface serial EEPROM 24C02, stepper motor drive circuit, relay, infrared receiver, etc.
● Summarize
After the above microcontroller development board comparison analysis, it can be concluded that the microcontroller is the chip on the development board kit, and the development board is a circuit board composed of a microcontroller and other electronic components. The circuit board has been designed and can be used directly, while the microcontroller still needs to be functional design, burning program. There is an inclusion relationship between the two.
