From our wealth of articles and product write-ups about microcontrollers, we’ve selected a group that should be of interest to anyone who needs to understand how to work with MCUs and their applications. Written by our editorial staff as well as contributors, these articles have both timeliness and long term appeal.— Joe Desposito

A Universal Port for 8-Bit Micros

 By Lucio Di Jasio

If ten years ago a serial port could be considered a kind of universal port, allowing any embedded application to connect to pretty much any computer, printer and modem, today that simplicity is gone. Much more is expected from the embedded applications of the 21st century. Any designer working on applications that require universal connectivity needs to consider offering the basic trio composed of UART, USB and Ethernet. But can this be accomplished efficiently and economically?

Networking Processor Peripherals With I2C

 By Mark Hastings

As microcontrollers drop in price and offer more capabilities, designers have found it more cost-effective to utilize multiple small controllers in both single-board and multiboard systems. Such auxiliary processors can relieve the main processor of time-consuming tasks such as scanning keyboards, display controllers, and motor control.

Security Micros Combat Counterfeiting

 William Wong, Embedded/Systems/Software Editor

Security breaches and counterfeit devices are two major issues that developers encounter these days. Preventing these problems eventually comes down to the same solution: starting with a secure root.

Neural Net Chip Enables Recognition For Micros

 William Wong, Embedded/Systems/Software Editor

Cognimem Technologies' Cognimem PM1K neural network chip provides high speed data recognition allowing microcontrollers to handle tasks like image recognition.

MCU Integrates Sub-GHz Wireless Transmitter

 By Staff

To simplify secure remote keyless entry designs, the PIC12LF1840T48A integrates an eXtreme Low Power (XLP), 8-bit PIC microcontroller (MCU) with a sub-GHz RF transmitter in a 14-pin TSSOP.

AVR MCU Unlocks Car Key Fob Applications

 By Staff

The ATA5790N AVR microcontroller (MCU) packs an AES-128 immobilizer protocol stack and a 3D LF receiver in a single 5 mm x 7 mm QFN38 package.

Interfacing Microcontrollers to the Industrial World

Going from the 3.3V microcontrollers' I/O signal level to the harsh 24V industrial world requires careful design decisions and dedicated solutions to achieve safe and reliable operation. Driving relays, valves, lamps, laser diodes, LEDs, long cables or filter and validate noisy digital/analog inputs is not easy to achieve. This white paper describes the different challenges and design considerations to be made, as well as potential solutions to maximize functional safety and ease of serviceability.