5 Conclusion

This application note presents developers with a brief overview of how an 8-bit microcontroller can be used to improve the power consumption of a process computer, such as an SBC.

The proof-of-concept application presented in this application note can be extended in various ways. For example, oscillator inaccuracies and start-up delays can be compensated for by monitoring the actual sleep time by the process computer itself. That way, the process computer can change the amount of time the system is expected to sleep. In addition, various real-time tasks can also be offloaded to the 8-bit PIC microcontroller.