Microcontroller Families

ARM Cortex-M, STM32, AVR, PIC and ESP32. The ARM architecture and Cortex-M profile, STM32 in depth, classic 8-bit AVR and PIC devices, and ESP32 wireless MCUs — how to choose and program each family.

• ARM Architecture — ARM processors power almost every phone and most microcontrollers. Learn the ARM RISC philosophy, profiles (Cortex-A, R, M), register file (R0–R15, CPSR/xPSR), load/store architecture, Thumb-2 instructions, condition codes, the AAPCS calling convention, pipelines, and ARM assembly examples.
• ARM Cortex-M & STM32 — 32-bit ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers dominate modern embedded design. Learn the Cortex-M family (M0/M3/M4/M7/M33), the STM32 ecosystem, clock tree and PLL, RCC peripheral clock enabling, GPIO modes, timers (PSC/ARR/CCR), USART baud (BRR), NVIC, CMSIS and HAL vs register (LL) programming.
• AVR & PIC Microcontrollers — AVR (Arduino's ATmega) and PIC are the most popular 8-bit MCU families. Learn their Harvard RISC architectures, register-based I/O (DDR/PORT/PIN, TRIS/LAT), timers with prescalers and CTC/PWM modes, UART baud calculation (UBRR), ADC, fuses/configuration bits, and bare-metal C programming.
• ESP32 & Wireless MCUs — The ESP32 brought Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to low-cost microcontrollers. Learn its dual-core Xtensa/RISC-V architecture, peripherals, ESP-IDF with FreeRTOS, Wi-Fi station/AP, MQTT/HTTP, BLE, power modes and deep-sleep battery life, OTA updates and security.