Glossary

Microcontroller - a small computer made on an integrated circuit

Integrated circuit - a tiny chip that contains a lot of components (resistors, transistors, capacitors) that are all electrically connected together and work together to reach a certain goal (compare or amplify signals, rectification, etc.)

Central processing unit - An electronic circuit on chip which executes instructions

Nonvolatile memory - a type of computer memory that can retain stored information even after power is removed

Volatile memory - a type of computer memory that loses information after power is removed

Internet of Things (IoT) - Sensors, electronic devices and actuators that are comprised in one system which sends, receives and process information from the said elements with a help of network

Shift register - IC that allows to control multiple elements via saving the output in the register

Logic level - voltage value that is high enough to be recognised by a microcontroller as 1, or logic HIGH, usually 3.3 V or 5V.

Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) - a signal that consist of logic HIGH and logic LOW pulses at a certain frequency. Duration of logic HIGH pulse determines PWM duty cycle which consequently is the percentage of power that the signal carries.

Bit - it can either be 0 or 1, a single cell that contains binary data. The fundamental piece of information storage.

Byte - 8 bits

Word - 2 bytes

Object oriented programming - a programming paradigm based on use of objects and classes.

To compile code - a compiler is a software that translates high-level programming language to machine code which can be executed

Analog-to-digital converter - a circuitry that recreates arbitrary analog signal with digital code, accuracy of which depends on converter’s resolution

Baud rate - the rate of information transmission