ISAC (1)

MicroConverters are 8-bit microcontrollers specially designed for sensor/actuator applications. These new components from Analog Devices combine a powerful 8051-family microcontroller core, including flash program and data memory, with a multi-channel 12-bit analogue interface which includes an A/D as well as a D/A converter.In this first article in the ISAC series we describe in detail the main component, the ADuC812 MicroConverter, along with its onchip peripherals. In the second part we will develop a small experimental circuit which will let us take the first easy steps — and the later, more complicated steps — in the world of the MicroConverter.Analog Devices produces, free of charge, a complete integrated development environment (IDE) for the device, which allows easy programming in Assembler or in C. We will look at this in the third instalment.