Basic Hardwares to Remember

[Microcontroller(MCU)]
Microcontrollers are special purpose computers. (consider your desktop as general purpose comuter)
And the Microcontrollers have RAM, ROM, EEPROM embedded in it. Based on Harvard architecture

Keywords

embedded(inside another device), dedicated (to one task), small and lowcost.

Q. What is the difference between microcontroller and processor? imcrocontroller is implemented into a processor.\

[ROM]
Permanently stores data on personal computers(PCs) and other electornic devices.

Keywords

Read Only Memory.
Essential for basic input/output system (BIOS) Starting the computer.
RAM is volatile on the other hand.

[EEPROM]

Keywords

Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
Also called(or the updated version EEPROM) is Flash Memory.

[PIC]
an example of popular microcontroller.

[Processor]
or known as microprocessor. No peripheral devices such as RAM, ROM,EEPROM.
Therefore, it is bulkier than microcontrollers(compact).
But faster(1 GHz) than MCU(8 MHz ~ 5MHz).
MCU has power saving system, while Processor are not.
Microcontrollers are based on Harvard Architecture¹
, while Processors are based on Von Neumann model² where program and data are stored in same memory module.
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1. program memory and data memory are separate.
2. program and data are stored in same memory module.