Microcontroller
A complete system on a chip!
Microchip - PIC devices, Atmel - AVR devices.
Both based on Harvard architecture and use Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processor
(Only a few tens of instructions).
Many microcontrollers now contain Analogue to Digital Converters (ADCs) and Digital to Analogue Converters (DACs).
Some microcontrollers are designed specifically for processing analogue signals (audio and radio frequencies).
These are known as Digital Signal Processors (DSPs)
System diagram (~2009)
