Microcontroller programming

MICROCONTROLLER PROGRAMMING

Programming AVR microcontrollers is the process of writing (programming) data to the read-only memory (ROM) of the microcontroller. In general, in addition to the programming of avr microcontrollers, programming of microcircuits (ms.) programming of memory and logic matrices occurs in practice. As a rule, programming of avr microcontrollers and memory chips is carried out using special devices – programmers. A good programmer provides not only programming (writing), but also reading data and, in some cases, performing other actions with ms. And the data in it (delete, read-protect, program-protect, etc.).

AVR microcontrollers can be programmed in two ways – parallel and serial. “Parallel” programming is more complicated in terms of the programmer and the programming itself, but it has slightly greater capabilities (for example, controller software with reset settings). Serial programming (SPI programming) is very easy to implement, does not require an amplified voltage, it works even if the microcontroller is already soldered to the working circuit – this is In – Circuit Programming (ISP – In System Programmer). Microcontroller programming languagesAll modern microcontrollers belong to the class of microprocessor devices. The main principle of operation of such elements is the execution of a sequential flow of commands called a program. The microcontroller receives commands in the form of individual machine codes. Meanwhile, machine codes are not very suitable for programming and debugging because they are difficult for humans to understand. This fact has led to the emergence of various programming languages. Microcontroller programming languages ​​differ little in structure from classical languages ​​for computers. The only difference is focused on working with built-in external devices. Microcontroller architecture, for example, requires bit-oriented instructions. The latter allows you to work with individual input/output port lines or register flags. Such commands are not available on most major architectures. Even the ARM core, which is actively used in microcontrollers, does not contain bit instructions, as a result, developers had to create special methods for bit access.3Assembly programming of microcontrollers

Assembler is the lowest level language. At the same time, it allows you to fully reveal all the possibilities of microcontrollers and get maximum performance and compact codes. In some cases, there is no alternative to the assembler, but nevertheless it has many disadvantages. As a result, despite the compactness of machine code, a program written in Assembler is clumsy and difficult to understand. To create it, you need a perfect knowledge of the architecture and instruction set of microcontrollers. Assembler with much improved resources for programming microcontrollers, such as 8-bit models with a small amount of memory. For large programs, and even more so for 32-bit controllers, it is better to use other high-level languages. This allows you to create more complex and understandable programs. Microcontroller programming si

C programming language refers to higher level languages ​​as compared to Assembler. A program in this language is well understood by people. The advantage of C programming is the large number of software tools and libraries that allow you to easily create the necessary code. In fact, si has become the main language for developing control programs today. Compilers of this language are used for almost all microcontroller models. A standard language allows programs to be ported from one platform to another. In theory, different