Oscillator hardware

Introduction

All digital computer systems are driven by some form of oscillator circuit. This circuit is the ‘heartbeat’ of the system and is crucial to correct operation. For example, if the oscillator fails, the system will not function at all; if the oscillator runs irregularly, any timing calculations performed by the system will be inaccurate.

As a consequence, choice of an appropriate oscillator circuit is an important part of any hardware design. For most microcontroller-based systems, there are two main oscillator options, each of which is represented by a pattern in this chapter:

CR YST AL OSCILLA TOR [page 54]

CERAMIC RESONA TOR [page 64]

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