Difference Between 16-bit, 32-bit, And 64-bit Microcontrollers

Hello guys, welcome back to our blog. Here in this article, we will discuss the difference between 16-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit microcontrollers, the key features of 16-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit microcontroller, and their applications.

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Difference Between 16-bit, 32-bit, And 64-bit Microcontrollers

16-bit microcontroller

A 16-bit microcontroller is a single chip containing self-sufficient memory space, embedded peripherals, and a high-speed processor. 16-bit microcontroller takes up memory space of 64 K bytes allocated for programs or data memory. The location of data ranges from 0000H through 000FH and 1FFEH through 2080H.

The several functional units associated with 16-bit microcontrollers include,

A register file of 232 bytes for CPU.
8 kbyte Register Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU).
Internal ROM programmable high speed.
Includes 16-bit timers/counters.
Eight Multiplex analog-to-digital converters with I/O ports.

Key features of 8096 microcontroller

A 16-bit microcontroller is capable of high-speed performance for various control applications. It has four input programmable edge detectors and four software timers. It can also perform Run Interrupt control. The architecture of the 16-bit microcontroller includes an input port for the PWM output signal that can be used to drive motors. The serial ports of the 16-bit microcontroller have programmable baud rates. It requires 100 instructions for 16-bit arithmetic instructions for multiplication and division operations.

01. Arithmetic operations

The memory space for a 16-bit arithmetic operation ranges from 0 to 65,535. The ALU of a 16-bit microcontroller can perform high-speed control applications.

02. Clock Speed

The data processing speed of a microcontroller is truly based on the time frame that depends on a crystal oscillator. For one instruction set it takes one cycle to execute, which decides the data processing. The frequency for a 16-bit crystal oscillator ranges from 40 to 64 MHz.

03. Memory

The memory space occupied by the 16-bit microcontroller has four times more memory than the 8-bit microcontroller.

04. Peripherals

16-bit microcontroller allocates ports for Ethernet and USB. It may require additional peripheral ICs to improve performance.

32-bit microcontroller

32-bit microcontroller has data range from 0 to 4,29,49,67,295 of memory space. Because of the broad data bus range, the 32-Bit microcontroller requires only a few instruction cycles for function execution. It has more peripherals and memory, including Ethernet Mac, CAN, USB, and SD/MMC. The data processing speed depends on the crystal oscillator with Frequencies ranging from 10 to 100 MHz. The high data processing speed also requires high power consumption and is sometimes overkill for the required application.

Applications of 16-bit microcontrollers

Engine control systems.
Medical devices such as pacemakers.
Remote controllers.
Tools for power operations.
Digital toys.
Embedded systems.

Applications of 32-bit microcontrollers

We use them for applications that require huge data processing.
A face recognition system that requires the processing of thousands of data and provides a response in a second.

A significant difference between 16-bit and 32-bit microcontroller

	*16-bit microcontroller*	*32-bit microcontroller*
*Dat*a range	0 – 65,535	0-4,29,49,67,295
*Clock Speed*	40- 64MHz crystal	Over 100 MHz crystal
*Memory*	4 times more memory than 8-bit	8 times more memory than 8-bit and 4 times more memory than 16-bit.
*Interrupt*	Single interrupt capability	Single interrupt capability with hardware context save
*Form Factor*	Medium package	Larger package (TQFP, QFP, VTLA, TFBGA)
*Peripherals*	Needs additional peripheral ICs	Allocates Ethernet, CAN, USB, and Modbus peripherals
*Commercial available*	Extended 8051 XA, Intel 8096, MC68HC12	ARM, PIC32, Intel 80960, Intel/ Atmel 251 family

64- bit microcontroller

64-bits microcontroller can perform many operations per second compared to a 32-bit controller. The internal registers with temporary storage locations are 64-bit wider. The data range from 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 (264). We can employ it for intense data processing requiring 18 exabytes.

Advantages of 64-bit microcontroller

The following are the advantages of 64 bit- microcontroller:

01. More memory space

High data tools such as Hadoop can be easily handled using a 64-bit computing processor. We performed effortlessly database management with data visualization of complex software programs. Simultaneously connects multiple virtual machines.

02. High performance

64-bits self-sufficiently handle processing and moving of data twice that of the 32-bits. In every clock cycle, 64-bits handle a large number of the instruction sets. They effectively handled larger instruction per unit time.

03. More data resolution

Applications rendering topographical maps require handling data of different states. 64-bit MCUs perform 2⁶² different states.

Drawbacks of 64- bit microcontroller

01. Industrial reach

64- bit controllers are still underreached in all industries. The 64-bit processors are limited to 256 TB because of the limitations of the available operating systems. A lot of industries are still out of scope to handle such enormous capacity.

02. Memory waste

The conversion from 32-bit to 62-bit causes memory capacity wastes based on the format of the stored data. Replacement to an equivalent 64-bit program causes huge memory wastages.

Difference between 32-bit and 64-bit microcontrollers

	*32-bit microcontroller*	*64-bit microcontroller*
*Memory address space*	2³²	2⁶⁴
*RAM space*	More than 4 GB of RAM	18 quintillion bytes of RAM
*Performance*	Cannot perform 64-bit programs/ applications	Can perform 32-bit programs or even lesser
*Interrupts*	Multiple interrupt capability with hardware context save	Multiple interrupt capability with multi-tasking context saves.
*Applications*	Huge data processing, routine tasks	Multi-tasking and stress testing.
*Operating system*	Requires only a 32-bit operating system	Can operate in both 32 and 64-bit operating systems
*Commercially available*	ARM, PIC32, Intel 80960, Intel/ Atmel 251 family	Atmega 328P

This was about “Difference Between 16-bit, 32-bit, And 64-bit Microcontrollers“. I hope this article may help you all a lot. Thank you for reading.

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Chetan Shidling

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