Help Choosing the Best Microcontroller

EMPTY_C

Hey all,

I am embarking on a journey to develop my own EVIC (Electronic Valve Internal Combustion Engine) that i will be using for my research project. Here is the question though. Because engines can run upto and exceeding 8000 rpm's i was wondering what i should use as the "power house" of my electronic system? I think the system is going to have to include a hall-effect sensor, solenoid, and some other small end electronics. I have ordered a book that uses PIC's but i was wondering if there was a "speed" advantage with using a PIC over the Basic Stamp over using computer control with MatLab or LabView?

MT

Mike Green

Basic Stamps are relatively slow. The BS2 executes roughly 4000 interpretive instructions a second. That's not quite fast enough for what you want to do. I would suggest using a Propeller. It's very fast, has 8 separate, identical processors that run simultaneously. It can produce its own video output for monitoring the status of the system and can directly use a PS/2 keyboard for setting parameters. There are lots of other advantages as well.

waltc

Labview is the high end and good test tool if you know how to use it. I like it, but YMMV.

As far as processors go, what Mike Green said.

As a side note:
Other popular processors include the MC68332 and MC68333 used by GM and programmed in Modula-2.

And if you look at whats planned for cars in the near future you'll see chips like Freescales multicore PowerPC monster in a 560 pin BGA which is a veritable system on a chip.

Suppling microprocessors to the automotive giants is big business.