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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Getting Started with avr microcontroller

Well...time to stop this history lecture and come to the point.We are using atmel avr microcontroller.Many of you may ask why we are using this one.Well...actually I have already answered it but missed one point.Atmel guys write their datasheets very well and they are easy to understand(Datasheet is the documentation of the device you are using...means pin configs,register descriptions etc.).
Atmega16 is an 8bit avr microcontroller with 16k in system programmable flash.Well...after all these almost non-technical stuffs,the aforesaid one is like instantly changing speed from as slow as a cycle to as fast as a bullet train!!!Well, avr is a computer architecture developed by Atmel.It's a modified harvard architecture system.8bit means the register size(a temporary memory where data can be stored,exchanged etc.) is limited to 8bits and more precisely...the arithmetic logic unit(CPU) can process 8bit data at a time(maximum).Register is like a set of memory blocks.Each of them can store one bit(0 or 1).So each register of avr should have 8blocks for 8bits.There are some 10bit,16bit registers too,but they are actually collections of several 8bit registers(We shall see them in datasheet).
Now...what is that "in system programmable flash" thing?Well...flash is a non-volatile memory and in avr microcontroller(and in many others),this is the memory where the program you have written is kept."In system" means you can program the microcontroller even after installing it in your circuit.That's a great thing because you don't need to remove uC from circuit to program it.You just power your circuit and connect your programming hardware to it and just send the program from your PC or Laptop!
Now...I have stated something new here what I haven't stated before:"Programming Hardware".Well...Since the beginning of this tutorial I have been saying that uC can be "programmed".But how?You can't just load the program into a pendrive and then insert it into uC!You need a circuit that will work as an interfacing medium between the uC and your PC.This is the programming hardware.There are many kinds of programming hardwares available for avr(We will discuss it soon).
Besides, you also need a software that will use the hardware to send the program to uC.Well...we will discuss it too!
Now...let's come to datasheet.I said you need it to know about the uC you are using.Seeing it you can know the features of your uC,pin config, internal devices and how to access them through your code etc.A very good video on accessing the datasheet is about to be published(It's on atmega8 but you can easily get the main theme).Well...let's move to our next chapter.

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