basic stamp + very large matrix (multid. array) ... use USB?

Olivierw

hello,

this is my first post here, and i know, a lot of this has allready been covered.
But i got no experience with the basic stamp or propeller, and don't understand everything about EEPROM, scratch memory, slots, ...

here's my goal:
I need to start a scientific project, where i'm working with a big matrix.
the matrix should be AT LEAST 180x250, every cell must be at least a byte.
so that means: 180x250 bytes. /1000 for Kbytes = 45Kb at least.

the matrix is filled in the first program section
(scanning an area through a microscope and getting data to fill matrix)
(you can see the matrix as a digital image)
in the second part of the program, this data is analysed and converted, and in real life the analysed sediment is treated a bit, so microscopic image changes a bit.
in the last part, data has to be read again from the matrix, and compared with new data, and the data in the matrix has to be replaced with the difference between old and new data.

hop i have been clear enough to explain what i want to do?

the basic stamp is certainly powerfull enough for what we want to do, but only has 2K of memory,
the BS2pe has 8x2Kb, but still that's only 16.

could this matrix be stored and read and rewritten with the usb data logger? or do i have to look into other controllers like the propeller or arduino?
or any other solutions?

thanks in advance
Olivier

Clive Wakeham

The "P" versions of the Basic Stamp can control I2C devices like EEPROM's which would give you the storage space you need, however the Basic Stamp are slow linear devices which not really do what you need it to do.

The propeller is multi cored (cogs), can access more memory etc.

Mike Green

The Stamps are way too slow for this sort of project. The Propeller doesn't have enough built-in memory, but you can attach external RAM more than large enough for this. There are a number of forum members that sell Propeller boards with 512K or more of external RAM which can be used for programming using the Catalina C compiler and data using several different programming language including Catalina and Spin. Look at the Mikronauts website for one example.