Is the propeller multitask or a 8 tasks microcontroller ?

Joe

Hi,

Only to know :

Is the propeller multitask or a 8 tasks microcontroller ?

( In other words, Do you know if each internal proccesor could manage more than one task ? )

joe

Jon Williams

The Propeller has eight independent Cogs (processors), so it is indeed multi-tasking/processing.· On top of that, each cog has two specialized counters that can manipulate output pins independent of that Cog's code, so you could in fact be doing two or three "tasks" (mainline code plus two counter driven outputs) per Cog.


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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax

cgracey

You can do single-instruction task switching within each COG to run multiple programs within a COG. They must be in assembler, though.

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Chip Gracey
Parallax, Inc.

Joe

Thanks Chip:

Then the propeller is a 8 task micro using Spin language
or
more than 8 task using Assembly Language ( is this ok? ) .

Sorry, my english is not good and I don't know the meaning of COG.


Thanks, Joe

Jon Williams

Remember that no matter what language you use, each cog has two counter moduels with pin control that can be started and will run independently of everything else. Propeller assembly is VERY fast, so a crafty programmer (like Chip) can get quite a lot done with it in just one cog.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax

Ken Gracey

Hi Joe,

Cogs are processors, and there are eight (8) of them in Propeller. You have eight cogs to use as you see fit, which all run concurrently and access the same I/O pins on Propeller. Additionally, depending on your needs, you can multi-task within a single cog using Spin or assembly language. Objects are Spin/ASM files. You can launch many objects from a single cog. It all depends on what you want to do and how you design your program to use Propeller's hardware.

Hopefully this helps clarify a bit. Keep asking questions.

Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.