Ten 32-bit MCUs Powering Next-Gen Embedded Systems
In 1974, Texas Instruments released the TMS1000, the first commercially available microcontroller (MCU). This groundbreaking (for its time) component combined a 4-bit CPU, 1 KB ROM, 256-bit RAM and input/output lines, all on a single chip. Today, a high-performance 32-bit MCU sporting 2MB of on-chip SRAM can reach speeds of 1 GHz, running at least 2,500 times faster than the pioneering TMS1000.
Microcontrollers have evolved from simple...