CPUs and microcontrollers: what’s the difference?

They’re the brains in everything from your car and TV to your fridge and washing machine, but what are microcontrollers and how do they differ from your PC’s CPU? Darren Yates explains.

Power up your PC or laptop and within seconds, you can be running all sorts of apps – everything from online dating to printed circuit board layout design. The CPUs inside your favourite computing devices are ‘general purpose’ in that they can turn their hand to almost any application. They’re the SUVs of the computing world. By comparison, microcontrollers units (MCUs) are single-minded. They appear in applications where they usually have just one job to do – and do it incredibly well. If CPUs are the SUVs, then microcontroller units are the nimble trail bikes that go almost anywhere. This month, we look at how MCUs work, what they can do and why they’re heaps of fun. One-stop shop AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 3990X is a remarkable chip – a huge…

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APC (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2022

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