The general-purpose peripherals shown in this chapter are commonly supported by a wide range of microcontrollers. Although implementation details such as register names and placement may differ on other targets, the mechanisms described in this chapter are available on most embedded platforms, and they are the bricks for building the most basic system functionalities as well as providing means of interaction with sensors and actuators.

In the next chapter, we focus on serial communication channels provided by most microprocessors as communication interfaces towards other devices, and peripherals in the proximity of the target system.