ASICs, Structured ASICs, And FPGAs.

The article presents information related to Microcontrol Unit, Multi-Chip unit, Multipoint Control Unit. Generally, microcontrollers are grouped by their bus width but the lines between systems are becoming extremely fuzzy. Texas Instruments' MSP43OX architecture provides access to upto one Mbyte of flash memory. The architecture expands the 16-bit register set to 20 bits. The overlap between architecture coverage is extending. The 8-bit processors are challenged by low-power 32-bit processors for some tasks and this trend will persist over the next few years as each group of processors continues to grow. The 8-bit microcontrollers is the low end-solution. The 8-bit microcontrollers are now available with even lower power requirements and lower voltages. Long-life, battery-operated applications will increase because of new alternatives. It is also predicted by some industry watchers that the end of 16-bit microcontrollers have arrived due to the increased availability of 32-bit solutions and pressure from more powerful 8-bit products.