Tongue in cheek comparison of several micros
Martin Hodge
Posts: 1,246
It's a little biased... maybe...
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-MH
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-MH
Comments
-Phil
OBC
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Rich H
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The Simple Servo Tester, a kit from Gadget Gangster.
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John R.
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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
@Leon: But PICs are SO WEIRD. They're built like "Well, pin 2 you can output analog, and on pin 5 you have a serial line....." it's like when a grade school kid makes a poster of different pictures, all strewn about with no apparent order. They seem like no organization went into them, and yet they are cheap enough to be one of the most popular chip today. I stick with the ol Prop. Any pin can be anything and you have full versatility.
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Don't click on this.....
Use the Propeller icon!!
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-MH
-Phil
That's because PICs (and AVRs) have hardware to do things that require software on the Propeller, leaving more memory for applications. In some situations it's an advantage. The Propeller is far too expensive for the sort of applications PICs and AVRs are typically used for, and doesn't have on-chip USB or Ethernet hardware.
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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Post Edited (Leon) : 3/12/2010 11:56:31 PM GMT
I do like AVRs though and use them with the Prop on many projects.
I often use the mega168 and a prop...I have a bunch of mega168 chips laying around.
The pico-power mega644p is also a nice addition to a prop project.
-Phil
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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
This. If the PIC does what you want, great; it will probably be cheaper. But Gaia help you if you should want to do a little bit more in a way that it can't. On the Prop if you've got another cog it can be a UART (or four!), another video channel, PS/2 input, SPI or IIC interface, whatever you might need. On the PIC, if it has 2 UARTs and you realize you need 3, uh-oh too bad. It only ever has one each SPI and IIC and if you don't want to try making the SD card and SPI RAM play nice together, uh-oh, too bad. If you'd like the your four SPI RAMs to be reading all at the same time for better throughput uh-oh, too bad. And so on.
I just put together a Daisy MP3 player kit, which uses a DIP40 PIC18F45J10. The chip does what it needs to and costs about 1/4 what a Prop would, so cool. But how much would it add to a $115 kit to upgrade to a Prop? (In fairness I think when Daisy was designed the Prop was $25, but still.) And while it's open source reprogramming the PIC requires a hardware link and USD$200 C compiler. So while it would be easy enough for me to add the SDHC support that it came without and I need (oddly it does use and even require FAT32 despite being SD only), it was cheaper for me to buy a Rogue Robotics uMP3 instead, which also came out of the box not understanding SDHC but could accept a serial firmware upgrade. For which, since my PC doesn't have a serial port, I used my propplug.
There is also a lot to be said for having the firmware on a socketed DIP8 EEPROM. This is a space effective and extremely convenient thing even if the Prop itself is SMT. Not having the firmware on the Prop absolutely is a feature, not a bug, as a lifetime of service experience insists. Generic programmers that can copy a IIC EEPROM are common, and you can even make one out of a demoboard with a little effort. For the PIC family, not so much.
Bean
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Use BASIC on the Propeller with the speed of assembly language.
PropBASIC thread http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=867134
March 2010 Nuts and Volts article·http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/docs/cols/nv/prop/col/nvp5.pdf
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He will put his hand in the fire, without fear.
I recently likened him to Joan of Arc, being English (61), it is both a compliment, and a criticism.
I also love PIC's, I also like ARM.
I am still waiting for an application of mine to shout " this must be a prop !!".
people here seem to use an $8 prop where a $2 PIC is more cost effective.
about 3 years ago I classed the prop as " a curio", its still the case.
why are Rayman et al castrating a beautiful 4.3" Colour (sic) graphics LCD capable of 200K colours by using a prop so it can only display 64 colours(sic), when an ARM LPC2478 cost $13 does so much more.
I like the prop architecture. when I need 4 or more serial ports, or 32 PWM outputs, or video speed, then a prop comes into its own.
BUT as usual "its solution must fit the problem"
I have 3 ( maybe 4) prop proto boards, but never powered them up in 3 years.
I check the prop forums every day, and am fascinated and impressed with the quality of intellect on the site
WE English love to be heretics
Mike
On the other hand if you are producing very small quantities of custom or semi custom products the price difference between chips is insignificant in the overall cost.
Far better to pay a little extra for a chip like the Prop and reap the benefits of a lower learning curve and ultra flexibility it's design makes possible.
I totally agree
Mike
I wish I was 61, I'm coming up to 68.
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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM