One embodiment of the present invention is a microcontroller (24) including an embedded memory (42), waveform control circuitry (44) operatively coupled to the memory (42), several terminals (52), and a programmable processor (30). Processor (30) is responsive to execution of the first sequence of instructions to store a waveform bit pattern in memory (42) with a desired transmission timing. Waveform circuitry (44) is responsive to processor (30) to control transmission of the waveform bit pattern stored in memory (42) through one or more of the terminals (52) in accordance with the timing while processor (30) executes the second sequence of instructions to perform a different process.