Programming peripheral modules of the MC68300 and MC68HC16 microcontrollers

The M68300 and M68HC16 families of microcontrollers have been available for several years. They are based on an Intermodule Bus concept where modules, such as CPUs or timers or serial ports, are connected together and communicate through a standardized bus. Using this overall design technique modules can be chosen from a library of modules and then, using CAD tools, the modules can be arranged in a "best fit" square and connected using the Intermodule Bus. The idea of running multiple tasks in the microcontroller world has a very great amount of merit when considering that many of the tasks are completely independent. The article discusses the advent of intelligent, programmable peripheral elements.