Microprocessors like 80186 are slightly more oriented towards data PROCESSING, whereas microcontrollers like 8051 are optimized for CONTROL of processes/devices.

There has been a discussion on microcontrollers vs. microprocessors a number of times, you could look those up.

If your application requires a lot of heavy processing to be done to display data on the LCD, then mebbe the 16-bit 186 is for you. But if its a 16x2 sort of LCD panel, an 8-bit 8051 is more than enough.

kundi