Issues of Controller Design

What Do You Want to Control?
- temperature: thermostat
- elevator: buttons
- computer: keyboard
- musical instruments: piano keyboard?

Communication Types:
- serial
- parallel
- USB
- MIDI
- your own?

Means of Connection:
- physical cable
- wireless (IR, radio)
- none?

Processors:
- DSP chips:
  - fast
  - good for DSP algorithms
  - i/o support (A/D, D/A, host communication)
  - usually steep learning curve
  - somewhat overkill for control
  - dependent on other processor
- Microcontrollers:
  - small words, integer math
  - higher level language support
  - low cost (PIC $4-10)
- Basic Stamp (uses PIC or Scenix chips)