Workhorses of the electronic era [microcontrollers]

A closer look at the machines and appliances almost always reveals a microcontroller within. Controllers are embedded in cordless and portable telephones, point-of-sale retail electronic cash registers, scanners of all kinds, security systems, automobiles and gas pumps, automated tellers, computers, and compact disks and disk drives, not to mention phone-answering, fax, vending, and washing machines. Here, the author describes how today's microcontrollers are performing better than ever through their use of high-level languages and multitasking techniques.