Home of RF and Wireless Vendors and Resources

One Stop For Your RF and Wireless Need

Microcontroller vs FPGA-difference between microcontroller,FPGA

This page compares microcontroller vs FPGA and mentions difference between microcontroller and FPGA.

Microcontroller

Microcontroller

The figure-1 depicts Microcontroller Architecture.
Refer 8051 Microcontroller Architecture➤.

FPGA-Field Programmable Gate Array

fpga

The figure-2 depicts FPGA Architecture.
Refer FPGA Architecture➤.

Following table-1 mentions difference between Microcontroller and FPGA.


Specifications Microcontroller FPGA
Principle of operation Desired program is flashed in the microcontroller which executes instruction consecutively. It works based on software program. Desired program to hardwire the logic circuit of FPGA is loaded. Based on this logic FPGA works as desired.
Software Programming Language used C, C++, C# etc. VHDL, Verilog
Application Suitable to be used for serial execution of instruction. Here speed is proportional to execution time of the instruction. It is used for parallel execution.
Processing power It is time limited. The execution depends on processor cycling power. It is space limited. More is the work, more is the logic circuits required to be created on FPGA chip.
Components needed All the required components are sufficiently available on chip itself. No external components are needed unless for specific requirements. It requires RAM, ROM and external storage. Almost most of the FPGA boards come up with these components in order to have rapid prototype developments.

Useful Links

Refer our Page on what a microcontroller does.
Refer our Page on microcontroller programming using C language including example.
Refer our Page on microcontroller development kit manufacturers.
RS232 interface   RS485 interface   RS422 interface   CAN interface   SPI interface   interface types and converters   DigRF interface 

What is Difference between

difference between FDM and OFDM
Difference between SC-FDMA and OFDM
Difference between SISO and MIMO
Difference between TDD and FDD
Difference between 802.11 standards viz.11-a,11-b,11-g and 11-n
OFDM vs OFDMA
CDMA vs GSM
Bluetooth vs zigbee
Fixed wimax vs mobile
wibro vs mobile wimax

RF and Wireless Terminologies