Is the Arduino a microcontroller or not?

I found this comment on Hackaday:

"Almost forgot: Arduino is not a microcontroller!!!!! is a project board based on AVR microcontroller."

Is it a microcontroller or by calling it an AVR microcontroller, is it the same thing? I don't understand.

Anyway, I still don't know which Arduino I should get because no one went the extra mile and I don't feel that is good because I could end up with an Arduino and few answers on this forum. I'm just asking for a few minutes of your time.

Ok, let me start by apologizing in advance, because I'm tired, and I can't be trusted to be accurate at this time.

Here's my take:

The Arduino is a development board for a microcontroller, the ATmega168/328/1280, etc. Although Arduino itself is not a microcontroller, the chip on it is, so for all intents and purposes, yes it is a microcontroller.

Arduino is also the IDE and method of programming the chip (and the bootloader for that matter).

Final Summation:

Short Answer: Yes, Arduino is a microcontroller.
Long Answer: No, it's a development board for a microcontroller.

http://www.google.no/search?q=define:microcontroller
http://www.google.no/search?q=define:arduino

Answer: not.

Is a PC a CPU? No, a PC contains a CPU.

Is an Arduino a microcontroller? No, an Arduino contains a microcontroller.

... or by calling it an AVR microcontroller, is it the same thing? I don't understand.

AVR is a brand of microcontroller, like Intel is a brand of CPU.

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Ultimately, when you are talking to someone about the Arduino, are you going to tell them "Yeah, that's my Arduino, its the microcontroller that {your project}", or are you going to say "Yeah, that's my Arduino, its a custom physical computing development board that contains an ATMega8/168/328/1280, along with a Java/Processing-based IDE...blah...blah...blah..." (their eyes glaze while falling over unconscious)?

Me personally, I would be far more likely to say the latter than the former, but that's just my tarded manner; I recognize it in myself (and you have all seen the books I write), and sometimes I can stop it, most of the time I can't. But I do recognize that first utterance is more likely to win you friends (granted, not -many- friends; most people couldn't give a flying crap about micro-controllers and electronics at the level we work with them - but at least you won't have caused them to fall asleep unwantedly).

I won't bore you anymore...

:o

Does it actually matter what it is called, it's just a name.

A nose by any other name would smell the same. :wink: