Confuse between Controller / Interface

[mdpai]

Hi,
I think I'm confuse the term module, controller and interface. Are these three the same thing? Can someone explain it to me if they have some free time of course.

I have a school project that need me to connect USB and Ethernet Ports to the microcontroller. There are some people explain me different things and right now I'm a bit lost. Btw, thanks for the explanation.

If I have a microcontroller that says :
• One USB 2.0 Full Speed (12 Mbits per second) Device Port
– On-chip Transceiver, 1352-byte Configurable Integrated FIFOs
• One Ethernet MAC 10/100 base-T
– Media Independent Interface (MII) or Reduced Media Independent Interface (RMII)
– Integrated 28-byte FIFOs and Dedicated DMA Channels for Transmit and Receive


Do I still need 2 ethernet interface and 2 usb interface to able to connect the components to the microcontroller.

Thanks

 

[welove8051]

hi,
a module is a device that is designed to operate on its own with or without controller. foe example GPS etc

a controller is a chip that operates based on the code written on it.

when we connect a module to a controller it is called interface.

anybody please correct me if i am wrong.

regards
kj

www.free8051projects.blogspot.com

 

[marikundam]

Hi KJ
i think your module and controller understanding seems to be fine, when it comes to interface you can treat it like a circuit connecting both module and controller. usage of the interface can be many, one among them is switching of power supply domains ("module" may work on one power supply whereas "controller" may need a different supply domain).