What is a development board

The development board is a circuit board used for embedded system development, including a series of hardware components such as central processing unit, memory, input device, output device, data path/bus and external resource interface. In the general embedded system development process, the hardware is generally divided into two platforms, one is the development platform, and the other is the target platform, that is, the development board. The development platform described here refers to using a computer to connect to the target platform through a transmission interface, such as serial port (RS-232), USB, parallel port, or network.

The development board is generally customized by the embedded system developer according to the development needs, and can also be researched and designed by the user. The development board 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. Common development boards include 51, ARM, FPGA, and DSP development boards.

In a nutshell, it refers to the integration of many single-chip peripherals used for learning, such as LED lights, digital tubes, push buttons, row and row buttons, stepper motors, servo motors, LCD displays, etc. Experiment, develop, etc. The development board is an experimental device (SCM programming)

 

What is a single-chip microcomputer

A single-chip microcomputer, also known as a single-chip microcontroller, is not a chip that completes a certain logic function, but integrates a computer system into a chip. It is equivalent to a micro computer. Compared with the computer, the single-chip microcomputer only lacks I/O devices. In a nutshell: a chip becomes a computer. It is small in size, light in weight, cheap in price, and provides convenient conditions for learning, application and development. At the same time, learning to use a single-chip microcomputer is the best choice for understanding the principles and structures of computers.

A single chip microcomputer is also called a single-chip microcontroller, which belongs to an integrated circuit chip. The single-chip microcomputer mainly includes CPU, read-only memory ROM and random access memory RAM, etc. The diversified data acquisition and control system enables the single-chip microcomputer to complete various complex operations, whether it is to control the operation symbols or to issue operation instructions to the system. Completed by the microcontroller. It can be seen that the single-chip microcomputer can be fully applied in intelligent electronic devices by virtue of its powerful data processing technology and computing function. Simply put, a single-chip microcomputer is a chip that forms a system. Through the application of integrated circuit technology, data operation and processing capabilities are integrated into the chip to achieve high-speed data processing.

The application fields of single-chip microcomputers are very wide, such as intelligent 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. It usually prefixes the product name with the adjective "smart," such as a smart washing machine.

 

What is an ARM development board

The ARM development board has many functional interfaces after adding peripheral devices based on CPU, such as extended TFT-LCD, LVDS interface, touch screen, VGA, matrix keyboard, external bus interface, CAN, SPI, PWM, high-speed USBHOST device, SD card, RS232\ RS485 serial port, audio, MIC and other common interfaces, leading embedded solution manufacturers in China often use ARM development boards with multiple core platforms, so that R&D engineers of various technology companies can easily test ARM development boards and R&D. The company's products can be quickly developed through the data files on the development board, and the research and development cycle can be shortened.

Commonly used embedded development boards are ARM and microcontroller. Many people are confused about the difference between MCU and ARM. From the overall comparison, the ARM development board is like a large multinational company, each part has a clear division of labor, multi-functional processing problems, very high stability, high overall operating efficiency and relatively high cost. A microcontroller is like a small private workshop. Although the sparrow is small and has all its internal organs, it has a single handling problem, fast operation speed and relatively low cost.

 

The difference between ARM and microcontroller

software

1) Convenience. It is mainly reflected in the future development, that is, the application program is directly developed on the operating system. Everything is not rewritten like a microcontroller. In the early days of operating system porting efforts, professionals still had to do it.

2) Security. This is the function of LINUX. The memory management of LINUX kernel and user space is separated, and the system will not crash due to the user's single program error. This has not been seen in software development for microcontrollers.

3) High efficiency. Introduce process management and scheduling systems to make systems run more efficiently. In the development of traditional microcontrollers, most of them are front-end and back-end technologies based on interrupts, and there are limitations in multitasking management.

hardware

The technology and hardware of current 8-bit microcontrollers are also developing rapidly, and there are many powerful microcontrollers. But there are still some gaps compared to 32ARM.

Most ARM chips integrate SDRAM, LCD and other controllers into this chip. In 8-bit computers, most require extensions. Generally speaking, single-chip computers are microcontrollers, ARM is obviously already a microprocessor.

After the introduction of the embedded operating system, many functions that cannot be completed by a single-chip system can be realized. For example: embedded web server, java virtual machine, etc. In other words, there are many free resources available. The above two services are examples. If you develop these functions on a microcontroller, you can imagine the difficulty.

 

From the application comparison point of view, the application fields of single-chip microcomputer and ARM embedded development board are relatively similar. In short, what can be done by a single chip is better done by ARM than what can be done by ARM. Therefore, in the mobile intelligent control terminal on the market, the ARM embedded development board has gradually replaced the dominant position of the microcontroller.

To summarize, a microcontroller is a microcontroller, and an ARM is obviously a microprocessor. ARM is the integration of various modules. There is no need to buy any chip required functions, such as 51 MCU. The ARM itself is integrated and can write directly into registers.

 

The difference between development board and microcontroller

 

The microcontroller is an 8-bit microcontroller chip, which is the core device of the 51 development board. The single-chip microcomputer development board integrates the peripheral devices commonly used by the single-chip microcomputer into the circuit board, and forms a development system together with the single-chip microcomputer. By writing programs to control the surrounding equipment to achieve the corresponding functions, in order to achieve the purpose of learning the microcontroller.

 

Development boards with different specific uses will vary, but usually need to be connected to a computer, and some need to have a serial port driver (use the serial port to download programs to the microcontroller)

 

To sum up, do you have a clear understanding of the three before? If you have any questions, please leave a message at any time. We will answer your corresponding doubts. See you in the next issue.