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Difference between PIC and MSP430

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Prerequisite – Difference between Micro-controller (µC) and Microprocessor (µP) Micro-controller is a single Integrated Circuit (IC) which is comparable to a little stand alone computer and it is designed to govern a specific operation in an embedded system. A micro-controller contains processing unit and small amount of memory (ROM, RAM etc.), few I/O ports for peripherals, timer etc. We can say it is a small and low-cost microcomputer. PIC and MSP430 comes under the family of micro-controller. PIC micro-controller and MSP430 micro-controller differs from each other in terms of different architecture and different sets of instruction, speed, cast, Memory, Power Consumption, Bus Width etc. Now let’s understand in detail how they differs from each other. 1. PIC micro-controller : PIC micro-controller was initially referred as Peripheral Interface Controller and now it is referred as Programmable Intelligent Computer. It comes under the family of micro-controllers made by Microchip Technology. It was originally developed by General Instrument’s Microelectronics in the year 1993. It can be programmed to carry out a vast range of tasks. PIC micro-controllers are available in 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit. It is based on RISC Instruction Set Architecture and Harvard memory architecture. 2. MSP430 micro-controller : It is a 16-bit ultra low power micro-controller with a lot features from Texas Instruments (TI’s). It is based on Von-Neumann architecture and comes as an micro-controller as well as in Launchpad. It consists of analog and digital devices for sensing and measurement applications. It a RISC micro-controller. It can be programmed in Code Composer Studio(CSS) IDE, Energia and other various IDEs. This micro-controller is designed for low cost and very low power embedded applications. 
Difference between PIC and MSP430 :

S.No. PIC MSP430
01. PIC micro-controllers are available in 8/16/32-bit. MSP430 is a 16 bit micro-controller.
02. Its speed is 4 Clock/instruction cycle. Its speed is 6 Clock/instruction cycle.
03. It supports PIC, UART, USART, LIN, CAN, Ethernet, SPI, I2S communication protocols. It supports PIC, UART, USART, LIN, I2C, SPI communication protocols.
04. It uses SRAM, Flash memory. It uses Flash, SDRAM, EEPROM memory.
05. It is based on Some feature of RISC. It is based on Some feature of RISC.
06. It is based on Harvard architecture. It is based on Von-Neumann architecture.
07. Its power consumption is low. Its power consumption is ultra low.
08. Its families include PIC16, PIC17, PIC18, PIC24, PIC32. Its families include MSP430X, MSP430FR57xx, MSP430x1xx, to ‘x6xx series.
09. It has very good community support. It has very vast community support.
10. Its manufacturer is Microchip. Its manufacturer is Texas Instruments.
11. Popular micro-controllers are PIC18fXX8, PIC16f88X, PIC32MXX. Popular micro-controllers are MSP430G2553, MSP430 Launchpad.

Last Updated : 07 Nov, 2022
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