Improbable Insights

The Lowly Microcontroller Inside your PC, your mobile phone, your car, your kitchen appliances, and many other everyday items are tiny little computers -- microcontrollers. These are complete computing engines, with CPU, memory, storage, I/O, and sometimes connectivity that control our modern world. The impact microcontrollers have on our lives is huge. Meaning Your phone may have a big applications processor, but without the tiny microcontroller taking care of the baseband, you wouldn't get data or make calls. Your PC has its CPU, but the power supply, keyboard, mouse wouldn't work without microcontrollers. Cars have dozens of them. Any toy or gadget with a flashing LED has one. David Bryant and Loyd Case discuss the impact microcontrollers have had on our lives, on product development, and even on the maker movement. After all, Arduino and Raspberry Pi are really microcontrollers at heart. Come along for the ride as we dive into these seemingly insignificant, yet vitally important, parts of the computing la