Hello,...

I had been learning about electronics for a couple years.
But, lately when I read some thread in forums, I realized that there are some basic things that I missed to understand.

Here is my questions :

1. When I try to learn to make my own schematics and prototyping it in a board, I searched some information online. Coincidentally, I saw that some people talking about digital and analog circuit. My simple question is, What do they mean by digital and analog circuit ? How can I differentiate it ? Until now I just make circuit for my microcontroller... I don't know anything about digital or analog circuit....

2. What is exactly PIC,PLC,microcontoller,microprocessor,ARM,FPGA differences ?
This is what I know so far....
*ARM and microcontroller is in the same family except that ARM is more advanced ? CMIIW, please...
*Microprocessor is simply a CPU without RAM,ROM,etc
*FPGA is a processor which we could defined every single pin and logic independently.
*No idea with PIC, PLC... I guess that it is microcontroller family, too...
Please share your knowledges with me.....

Thank you before....

Any information will be appreciated.

 

In the case of the term PLC, those that do not work in the Industrial Electronics or allied to the industrial Electrical side, usually refer to PLC to mean almost any programmable IC.
In the former mentioned industries, PLC usually is taken to mean the industrial device that replaced hardwired relay logic for industrial panels, developed by Dick Morely in 1968 at the behest of GM.
This is an Electronic system that takes all particular machine inputs and outputs and allows the programming of the system using Boolean logic and displays the result in something called ladder logic, which is a visual representation of hard wired relay format.
This makes it easier for maintenance personal to visually trouble shoot an automation problem.
Max.

 

My simple question is, What do they mean by digital and analog circuit ? How can I differentiate it ? Until now I just make circuit for my microcontroller... I don't know anything about digital or analog circuit....

What is exactly PIC,PLC,microcontoller,microprocessor,ARM,FPGA differences ?
This is what I know so far....
*ARM and microcontroller is in the same family except that ARM is more advanced ? CMIIW, please...
*Microprocessor is simply a CPU without RAM,ROM,etc
*FPGA is a processor which we could defined every single pin and logic independently.
*No idea with PIC, PLC... I guess that it is microcontroller family, too...
Please share your knowledges with me.....

When people refer to analog and digital, they imply the different domain of the signals. You pretty much can't have a purely digital circuit, since you need power supply, which is analogue. Those are generalizations, what I associate with digital is: a circuit which utilizes ICs, which produce pulses (use logic levels 0 and 1). Analogue - circuits such as amplifiers, filters, etc.

PIC = a family microcontrollers manufactured by Microchip
PLC = programmable logic controller - a special kind of systems used in heavy industry (they are designed to be more reliable and easy to program).
Microcontroller - a microprocessor with peripherals included (ADCs, I/Os, RAM, ROM, etc)
Microprocessor - CPU (ALU+Accumulators)
ARM - this is the name of a UK company from Cambridge, which designed a very ingenious CPU (named after it), which many companies adopted in their microcontroller designs.
FPGA - (Field-programmable gate array) is a configurable IC, which is programmed using hardware description languages (HDL). Those are used in many high end designs.

 

Digital -- Information is represented by discrete words in binary code This is translated to a series of logic ones (voltage high) and logic zeros (voltage low) in the circuit.

Analog -- Information is represented by the time-varying voltage level of a continuous signal.

 

Thank you very much for the answers.

I know some new things now.
Although, there are some thngs not completely clear to me.
But, I'll try to cover it myself.

Thanks for the share !