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Author Topic: The Best New Microcontroller is....  (Read 4590 times)

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Offline santiagoeTopic starter

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The Best New Microcontroller is....
« on: March 26, 2007, 10:11:39 PM »
Is it true that the best microcontroller out there is the propeller from www.parallax.com

"What can you do with eight 32-bit processors (COGs) in one chip? Real simultaneous multi-processing! The new Propeller chip is the result of our internal design team working for eight years"
http://www.parallax.com/propeller/index.asp

Is this microcontroller better than : AVR, ARM7, and BasicX ?

Offline JesseWelling

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Re: The Best New Microcontroller is....
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2007, 10:46:55 PM »
while multi core sounds cool, how much of a single processor do you use?
Granted this would be nice for integrated AI and sening/actuating and you could
compartmentalize fairly well but I don't see the huge advantage over an embedded operating system
if done correctly. And there is still the issue of two cores tyring to use the same pin.
not that the situation is any better in a single core architecture.

my opinion:
If you are doing robotics as a hobby and the robot is the end goal, yea this could work for you.
*but*
If you are doing robotics with a focus on learning instead of producing...I don't see this chip
looking good on a resume. ARM and AVR is where the industry is heading...

And I really don't like anything so Proprietary as
Quote
the Propeller chip is programmed in both a high-level language, called Spin™,and low-level (assembly) language.
Proprietary == gimick in my mind....but maybe that's just me. I prefer straight C coding because assembly is a pain in the but and C is an ISO standard. And almost any thing you can do in assembly can be done in C. any ways....i'm sleepy.....
« Last Edit: March 26, 2007, 10:53:24 PM by JesseWelling »

Offline trigger

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Re: The Best New Microcontroller is....
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2007, 12:50:04 AM »
It's like any other part.  You fit the part for the job.  If you have a particular set of requirements and think that this is the best part to meet those requirements, then use it.  Otherwise, it's kind of pointless to figure out which part is best.  Most people around these parts are using 8-bit microcontrollers for lots of stuff.  These things are are way obsolete.  But they're still the "best part" for some people because the meet the requirements they need. 
There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who can read binary, and those who can't.

Offline Hal9000

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Re: The Best New Microcontroller is....
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2007, 08:07:13 AM »
Whenever I see the word Parallax on books, whatever...........I try to steer clear of it. Sure, I haven't got that much experience, but I would stick with, yes, stuff like PICs, 8051s, AVRs and ARMs.
"The truth is, you can't hide from the truth, cos the truth is all there is" - Handsome Boy Modeling School

Offline Hal9000

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Re: The Best New Microcontroller is....
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2007, 08:07:52 AM »
But PICs and 8051s are becoming a bit outdated...........just thought i'd mention.
"The truth is, you can't hide from the truth, cos the truth is all there is" - Handsome Boy Modeling School

Offline JesseWelling

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Re: The Best New Microcontroller is....
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2007, 03:47:50 PM »
Depends on what you are doing. The chip we use at work is bassed on the 8051, and we are using a PIC for some specialized functions. But for hobby robotics with free development tools and lots of examples with good performance,
AVR and ARM are probably the best you can do.

Offline snow

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Re: The Best New Microcontroller is....
« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2007, 06:38:04 AM »
Or if you really want do to many things in parallel you might try out some small FPGA's from xilinx, altera...

 


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