Single-chip microcomputer was born in 1971, has experienced three stages, SCM, MCU and SoC early SCM SCM is 8 or 4. One of the most successful is the INTEL 8051, since in 8051 developed MCS51 series MCU system. Based on the system of single chip microcomputer system until now is still in wide use. Along with the improvement of industrial control field, began a 16-bit microcontroller, but because the cost performance is not ideal has not been very widely used. After the 90 s as the consumer electronics product development, single-chip microcomputer technology got great improve. As INTEL i960 series especially later ARM series are widely used, 32-bit MCU rapidly replacing the high-end status, 16 bit single chip microcomputer and entered the mainstream market.

And the performance of the traditional 8-bit microcontroller has been rapid increase, increased processing power compared to the 80 s hundreds of times. High-end 32-bit MCU Soc has more than 300 MHZ frequency, catching up in the mid - 90 - s dedicated processor performance, and ordinary type ex-factory price dropped to $1, the top model is only $10.

Contemporary single-chip microcomputer system is no longer only in the development and use of bare-metal environment, a large number of proprietary embedded operating system is widely used on the full range of single-chip microcomputer. And as a core processing handheld computers and mobile phones of high-end single-chip microcomputer can even directly using a dedicated Windows and Linux operating system.