Microcontroller Different form Microprocessor

These two terms Microcontroller and Microprocessor have always confused with each other. Both are designed for real time application. Microcontrollers are used for application specific applications and on other hand Microprocessor is used for General Purpose Application.

Following diagram illustrate the difference between Microcontroller and processor:

• Microprocessor is a single on chip Central Processing Unit. It includes ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit), CU (Control Unit) registers, instruction decoders, bus control circuit etc. On the other hand Microcontroller is the association of Microprocessor, Program and data Memory, Peripheral I/O Devices, Timers Clock Circuitry etc.
• A microcontroller is a application specific computer on a single Chip that runs a single dedicated task. Microprocessor is used in general purpose application systems as Desktop and Laptops. 
• For development of Project using Microprocessor required all external components (Program and data memory, I/O Devices) to interface. This makes the larger PCB Size, Expensive system.  On the other hand there will be no requirement of external peripherals so this makes the system cheap and small in size.
• Microprocessor Instruction sets is data processing intensive. Means power full addressing mode and many instructions to move data between memory and CPU to handle big amount of data. Microcontrollers have instructions sets that are related to control of input and output.
• Microprocessor based product are designed to interact with Humans and are more flexible to design. On the other hand Microcontroller based product are designed to interact with machine or for specific purpose, so these systems are less flexible.
• Software Protection is not possible because program stores in external Memory.  In Microcontroller the Code protection is possible because of on chip program memory.
• General Power consumption and heat dissipation is more because of external devices. Power Consumption in Microcontroller is very less compare to Microprocessors.
• Clock Frequency used in microprocessor is in GHz. Where as in Microcontroller Clock is in MHz.