Difference Between Microcontrollers and Microprocessors

Difference Between Microprocessor and Microcontroller:

             
                         
                                       Microprocessor is an IC which has only the CPU inside them.These microprocessors don’t have RAM, ROM, and other peripheral on the chip.A system designer has to add them externally to make them functional.


                                           Microcontroller has a CPU, in addition with a fixed amount of RAM, ROM and other peripherals all embedded on a single chip. At times it is also termed as a mini computer or a computer on a single chip.  Some manufacturers are ATMEL, Microchip, TI, Freescale, Philips, Motorola etc. 


                                           Microcontrollers are designed to perform specific tasks

                                           Microprocessor find applications where tasks are unspecific like developing software, games, websites, photo editing, creating documents etc.


                                          Undoubtedly a microcontroller is far cheaper than a microprocessor. However microcontroller cannot be used in place of microprocessor and using a microprocessor is not advised in place of a microcontroller as it makes the application quite costly. Microprocessor cannot be used stand alone. They need other peripherals like RAM, ROM, buffer, I/O ports etc and hence a system designed around a microprocessor is quite costly.  

By Don Kabilesh