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[[Category:Parts]]
[[Category:Electric parts]]

=Introduction=
A microcontroller (MCU for microcontroller unit) is a small computer on a single metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Program memory in the form of ferroelectric RAM, NOR flash or OTP ROM is also often included on chip, as well as a small amount of RAM. Microcontrollers are designed for embedded applications, in contrast to the microprocessors used in personal computers or other general purpose applications consisting of various discrete chips.

In modern terminology, a microcontroller is similar to, but less sophisticated than, a system on a chip (SoC). An SoC may include a microcontroller as one of its components, but usually integrates it with advanced peripherals like a graphics processing unit (GPU), a Wi-Fi module, or one or more coprocessors.

=Challenges=
* package types
* package sizes
* capacity and rating

=Approaches=
==Hardware Comparison==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rtos !! microcontroller !! board !! cost
|-
|[https://www.tockos.org/hardware/ Tock OS] || [http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/Atmel-42023-ARM-Microcontroller-ATSAM4L-Low-Power-LCD_Datasheet.pdf SAM4 series] || DuetWifi+ and clones || $80 - $200
|-
|[https://zinc.rs/ Zinc embedded OS], [https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap_Firmware RepRap Firmware]|| [https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/dm00037051.pdf STM32F407], [https://www.nxp.com/products/processors-and-microcontrollers/arm-microcontrollers/general-purpose-mcus/lpc1700-cortex-m3/512kb-flash-64kb-sram-ethernet-usb-lqfp100-package:LPC1768FBD100 LPC1768] || [https://reprap.org/wiki/Smoothieboard Smoothieboard], [https://reprap.org/wiki/SKR SKR] 1.3, 1.4 [https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bundle-SKR-PRO-V1-1-ARM-32bit-3D-Printer-Controller-W-5pcs-TMC2130-V3-0/392423369802?hash=item5b5e416c4a:g:zHkAAOSwN9NdQHFc SKR Pro]||  
|-
|  || [https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/LPC1759_58_56_54_52_51.pdf LPC1758FBD80] || [https://reprap.org/wiki/R2C2_RepRap_Electronics R2C2]
|-
|[https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap_Firmware RepRap Firmware]   || [http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/Atmel-11057-32-bit-Cortex-M3-Microcontroller-SAM3X-SAM3A_Datasheet.pdf SAM3] || [https://reprap.org/wiki/Duet Duet] ||
|-
| [https://marlinfw.org/ Marlin], [https://github.com/timschmidt/buildlog-lasercutter-marlin Laser Marlin] || [http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/Atmel-2549-8-bit-AVR-Microcontroller-ATmega640-1280-1281-2560-2561_datasheet.pdf Atmega 2560] || Rambo, MKS Base ||
|-
|  || [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_Propeller Parallax Propeller] ||  ||
|-
| [https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/issues/14345 Marlin 2.0] || [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP32 ESP32] || [https://github.com/simon-jouet/ESP32Controller/tree/r2 R2]
|}

=Development targets=

=References=
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcontroller Wikipedia: Microcontroller]