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I had quick question regarding Raspberry Pi: is it a microcontroller or a motherboard?

It looks like a motherboard, but considering that it has its own dedicated memory and processor, it should be a microcontroller.

Dave Tweed
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alif
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    It's neither. A microcontroller is a single integrated circuit, a motherboard typically refers to the "host" board for other components including processing chips, expansion boards, etc. – helloworld922 Apr 11 '13 at 01:03
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    The term microcontroller is reserved for chips that have CPU, ROM, RAM and some peripherals *on one chip*. – Wouter van Ooijen Apr 11 '13 at 11:14
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    This question is pointless and not a good fit for our site. A Raspberry Pi is what it is. Understand what it does so that it doesn't matter what you call it. This question is likely to solicit debate and opinion and can't definatively be answered in its current form. – Olin Lathrop Apr 11 '13 at 12:03
  • The CPU is actually a microprocessor/system on a chip, http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/1092/whats-the-difference-between-a-microcontroller-and-a-microprocessor?rq=1 – MDMoore313 Apr 11 '13 at 13:30

2 Answers2

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Neither: it can be considered a single-board computer where the main CPU is a system-on-chip.

Renan
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That's based on a limited definition of "microcontroller", or a very broad definition of it.

There are Microcontrollers, CPUs, SoC, SBCs, Motherboards, And the lines between them all, is very blurry, and mostly marketing.

Some consider most modern day consumer computers SBCs. Thinclients, Nano-itx, Pico-Itx, are considered motherboards, but some consider them SBCs, because they have nearly everything on board, RAM and flash disks included.

What's the difference between the Raspberry Pi, a Nano-Itx computer, and my router? Nothing, except marketing, for specific niches.

What is the difference between an ARM processor, and a Microcontroller like the ATMega or MSP430 or Pics? Nothing, except scale and marketing. Arm processors can fully function with just power.

As far as you question, no, noone would ever consider the Raspberry Pi a microcontroller, simply because it is intended for a larger scale than most microcontrollers are marketed for.

See microcontroller vs. System on chip for more info as well.

Community
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Passerby
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