IntroductionAs a computer science student in Computer Engineering/Computer Science 285, I have come to appreciate using a prototype board to complete the lesson. As someone more inclined toward software than hardware, the sixteen-week journey was a process. Part of my appreciation comes from my curiosity about the equipment in this class, learning about other components and the potential of the board. Learn not only the microcontroller and the 8051 board, but also how to operate them. Microcontroller vs. Microprocessor The first thing to do is to know the basics of what the 8051 is. The 8051 refers to a microcontroller. Microcontrollers are hardware components that have predefined quantities in its parts, such as RAM, ROM, and input and output ports. Microcontrollers are cheaper than microprocessors, which require separate RAM and ROM, depending on the user's needs. Microcontrollers are useful when creating systems embedded in applications so that they can control specific actions of a computer efficiently, both in terms of processing and cost. History of the 8051 Like most technology, there is always the struggle to make hardware more efficient, just like the history of the 8051 microcontroller. In 1980, Intel introduced the 8051 microcontroller as the successor to the 8048. It was efficient. It wasn't the best equipment, but it worked and was successful at the time. 8 bit, multiple I/O ports, 128kb of RAM, it was a standard piece to use. This is where the real success of the 8051 microcontroller came from. Intel decided it wasn't smart to keep the hardware exclusively proprietary. They allowed other companies to come in and make different versions of the 8051 microcontroller: different boards and different…half of paper…the fastest (and “best”) cores compatible with the 8051.” Conclusion8051 microcontrollers represented a major milestone in technology and are still useful to this day. Computers and other applications still operate using 8051, and it is used in classrooms today. Whether the microcontroller is dated or obsolete is always a matter of debate. In my opinion, the 8051 microcontroller has proven to be a useful piece of hardware for teaching engineers about the relationship between code and hardware. Just like in the review above, being able to see the hardware with a direct correlation to the software made me appreciate Esso more. Especially when building our final project, seeing the effect one line of code has on the entire output showed me that hardware and software go hand in hand and that these classes titled CECS, Computer Engineering/Computer Science, are appropriate.