John, You might want to have a look at the 32 bit Parallax Propeller processor - is has eight concurrent-running cores or "cogs" as they call them. Multi-core may be the wave of the future, and it is so nice to be freed from wrestling with interrupts. Natively it uses a language called Spin and of-course assembler. However, Imagecraft recently released a relatively affordable professional C compiler for the Propeller (http://www.imagecraft.com).
The chip costs $12 USD (ouch) in unit quantity and there IS a 40-pin DIP version available for those who hand-roll. There's a ready-to-run (less wall-wart power supply) Propeller Proto-Board for around $20 USD including regulators, processor, flash memory etc. Add a few resistors and the Propeller will output composite video or VGA, text or graphics. See www.parallax.com. There are some down-sides to the Propeller. First off, you need a way to physically program it. You have two options: 1. RS-232 with via a few added components, or 2. a USB/serial transceiver like an FTDI FT232RL. Parallax sells a Prop-Plug dongle for the USB solution, but they charge something like $30USD for each one (double ouch). You could build one for about half as much. Propeller has no internal A/D's or D/A's, no multiplier/dividers, and no Intellectual Property (IP) protection (a bootloader loads your application from I2C EEPROM. During development you can load RAM directly from the PC so as to not wear out the EEPROM, much faster too), there are lots of precision timer-counters though (2 per cog). I wish it had a little more RAM for a larger buffer when it runs native video and VGA output. The free Propeller Tool development environment runs only in Windows. There lots are free "Objects" for the Propeller collected on the Parallax Object Exchange site. There you will find floating point objects, video drivers, lcd drivers, you name it. Lastly there is a great user forum adjoined to the Parallax site: http://forums.parallax.com 73's David --- In [email protected], "John H. Fisher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dear AQRPer's, > > I am 61 years old and have the attention span of a gnat :-) So it > has become increasingly hard for me to start a project and complete it. > As some of you know, I did most of the basic research, DSP chip > selection, hardware design and hardware related software implementation > for the NUE-PSK which started out as a Software Defined Radio design. My > inability or desire to follow through led to Milt picking up the ball > and running with it. NUE-PSK would not have happened without Milt's > tenacity in converting the Moe Wheatley PSK31 software over to C and to > the dsPIC processor. Milt tied it all together with great foresight. > Likewise without the skills and tenacity of George Heron, the NUE-PSK > would not have come to fruition. Subsequently many volunteers have > contributed to this project. My point is that I have always considered > myself on the leading edge or advanced development end of things. > However now I would like to concentrate on teaching "C" and teaching the > skill of making a microcontroller actually do something in the real > world. I hope that we can come up with a sort of online forum for those > interested where everyone can contribute their skills and knowledge. I > have spent the last several years exploring every micro I can get my > hands on up to the Advanced Risc Machine, ARM. Several things are > abundantly clear. Using C and having good debug capability are vital. > Picking a simple, easy to work with, inexpensive, processor is essential > for initial learning. I think if we can get people over that initial > hump and actually blinking an LED, and understanding how it works, we > can all pick up the ball and run with it. The first step is to find a > medium or forum to teach from preferably telecommuting. One way would be > to start an AQRP special interest group devoted to microcontrollers. I'm > all ears. I would like to share the experience I've had with > microcontrollers, and help others to get interested. I refuse to let > this be an ego driven event on my part and will bow out if it begins to > be so. But for now my intentions are honorable, and hopefully when the > student is ready the teacher will appear :-) Or as I like to say, "a > little logic goes a long way" :-) > > CU Saturday at the AQRP meeting, > > Regards, > John >
