28-06-2012, 04:41 PM
Real Time Clock (RTC)
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The purpose of an RTC or a real time clock is to provide precise time and date which can be used for various applications. RTC is an electronic device in the form of an Integrated Chip (IC) available in various packaging options. It is powered by an internal lithium battery. As a result of which even if the power of the system is turned off, the RTC clock keeps running. They play a very important role in the real time systems like digital clock, attendance system, digital camera etc.
The article presented here shows how RTC can be interfaced with the microcontroller AT89C51. It explores the basic operation of accessing the internal registers and extracting time from the RTC. The time is displayed on the hyper terminal using serial communication. The RTC used here is DS 12C887. 89C51 microcontroller is a very commonly used controller from the family of 8051 series of microcontroller.
Our forthcoming articles and projects on RTC DS12C887 and 8051 microcontroller will further explore RTC’s interrupts and help you in making applications based on RTC and microcontroller.