Microcontroller or Microprocessor

There is not a really clear line between these two very different devices, and from an academic point of view we can say that a CPU has an MMU and external memory, an MCU does not.

Price of the two devices might be similar, even though there exists MCUs that could cost several time a CPU. The overall price of the complete CPU based solution you are going to develop will also change significantly increasing the cost of CPU based system, because a CPU always needs external memory and a PMIC that could cost several times more than the simple cheap CPU.

At the end of the game, if you think that a small MCU board will be cheaper you might be right, but not for sure.

So?

If you need to do a low level job more than one requiring real intelligence, an MCU might be the best choice.

But if you need to work with high end busses like Bluetooth, TCP, Wi-Fi, using an MCU could be hell because of the lack of the OS protocol stack, unreasonable to attempt to develop in C-C++.

This is why a Novasom Industries board based on an MCU has not been developed as a standard offering.

At the end of the game, The MCU based solution is not cheap and has a lot of limitations…. But, for a low level targeted function, has its place in the world.

You might think that there is a huge difference in the real time capability of the two kinds of solutions. This is true, but it’s another story...

Believe it and call us

to understand how we can best solve your problems