A question for the hardware sav''vey
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I have a question for the serial hardware sav'vey out there.
I've been working with parallel micro-controllers since the
old "F8" processors, but, I'm fairly new to the serial stuff
and don't know much about what's out there. I want to
build a little project where I have several wave form generators
running in parallel. The waveforms are complex so the
most practical method of generating them is to use
"look-up tables". In the bad old days of parallel devices,
it was a simple matter of a clock running a counter as
an address generator which then swept through a
pre-programmed EPROM which, in turn, dumped its data into
an A to D converter. Viola! A good, if simple, waveform
generator. Now, I would like to build a device which is
based upon the BasiStamp micro-controllers, which, of
course, are serial in nature. Now I realize that there are
serial EEPROMS and serial DACs. The problem is
that even the 50 mHz BS2s, doing essentially a "PEEK and
POKE" type operation are pretty slow when you are feeding
a DAC to generate a waveform. I figure that I would need
a controller for each channel just to feed the DACs and then
another to act as a supervisory controller for the others.
There must be a better way! Does anybody know of some
nifty chips out there that might improve the process?
Maybe serial counters or EEPROMS with built-in address
counters, Things like that? I can't use function generator
chips like the MAX038, because, as I said before, the waveform
is complex. Any ideas?
Jim A.
I've been working with parallel micro-controllers since the
old "F8" processors, but, I'm fairly new to the serial stuff
and don't know much about what's out there. I want to
build a little project where I have several wave form generators
running in parallel. The waveforms are complex so the
most practical method of generating them is to use
"look-up tables". In the bad old days of parallel devices,
it was a simple matter of a clock running a counter as
an address generator which then swept through a
pre-programmed EPROM which, in turn, dumped its data into
an A to D converter. Viola! A good, if simple, waveform
generator. Now, I would like to build a device which is
based upon the BasiStamp micro-controllers, which, of
course, are serial in nature. Now I realize that there are
serial EEPROMS and serial DACs. The problem is
that even the 50 mHz BS2s, doing essentially a "PEEK and
POKE" type operation are pretty slow when you are feeding
a DAC to generate a waveform. I figure that I would need
a controller for each channel just to feed the DACs and then
another to act as a supervisory controller for the others.
There must be a better way! Does anybody know of some
nifty chips out there that might improve the process?
Maybe serial counters or EEPROMS with built-in address
counters, Things like that? I can't use function generator
chips like the MAX038, because, as I said before, the waveform
is complex. Any ideas?
Jim A.