[time-nuts] Follow-up question re: microcontroller families

[Bob Camp]

Hi

As I've mentioned before, the ARM parts are getting to be pretty pervasive. The toolchains are quite good. The peripherals are extensive and they seem to work well. I have a preference for the Freescale versions, but there are a *lot* of people out there making them. They similarities between them are greater in most cases than the differences. You can get a part with 1MB of flash, 128KB of ram, 6 UARTS, 4 16 bit A/D's, 10/100 Ethernet, USB, and a bunch of other stuff for less than $10. Drop this and that, go to half the flash, and yup, the price is 1/2. Comes with a free toolchain and two very capable free versions of RTOS.

Why harp so much on toolchain stuff? Well, some of these outfits seem to think that $1,000 or $10,000 is a reasonable thing to pay for a single seat license of a full featured tool suite. The same is true in the RTOS world once you get past the "training wheels" versions. Not everything does well running under Linux. I would much rather have a proper RTOS for most embedded tasks.

Bob



On May 25, 2013, at 4:09 PM, "Charles P. Steinmetz" <charles_steinmetz at lavabit.com> wrote:

> On another thread, Bob wrote:
> 
>> If the objective is to complete a very simple, low powered project and be done with it, go with the Arduino. If the objective is to learn an empire, be very careful about which empire you pick. The ARM boys are quickly gobbling up a lot of territory that once was populated by a number of competing CPU's. Learning this stuff, and getting good at it is a significant investment of time.
> 
> I'm starting a new thread because I don't want to hijack the first one, which I'm hoping will continue to provide useful information about the broad continuum of available devices, from the "easy enough for a child to assemble and program" to the "need to learn machine language."
> 
> My question here is more pointed: If one is going to learn a new system today for timing and other measurement/control projects, which "empire" is likely the best one to choose?
> 
> Of course, much depends on "what do you want to do with it?"  So, perhaps, the ultimate answer will be several families, each for a class of applications.  But on the other hand, some families may have a range of models that fulfill a wide range of applications.  Also, my personal approach does not require squeezing each project into the most minimal hardware possible -- as long as the added expense isn't huge, I'm fine with using more resources than necessary for smaller tasks if it means my investment in learning the system (and in programming tools) is leveraged more broadly.  Also, my personal needs generally do not run to battery or other low-power systems, so low power drain is not of great importance to me.
> 
> Some of the more systemic (less application-oriented) factors would be, which system is more versatile?  Which has the most useful PC cards (or development kits) available that do not require the user to start with a bare chip?  Which is likely to be around and supported longer?  Which is easier to program?  For which is one likely to find more programs to study and pirate, more libraries, etc.?  Which is easier to outfit with removable memory (USB drives, memory cards, etc.)?  Which has better and faster ADCs and DACs?  I'm sure there are lots of other factors worth considering, as well.
> 
> There may be good resources already available that address these issues.  If so, pointers would be appreciated.
> 
> Any books people recommend to get a feel for applying and programming these devices?
> 
> Much appreciated,
> 
> Charles
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