Propeller chip (what is it exactly?)

SciTech02

I know this could (or is) a stupid question, but what is it?· It sounds like some super fast and powerful processing chip.· Could you explain what it is in an easy to understand format (for other people who have the same question).

One more thing, could you compare it to the other microcontrolers that Parallax sells? (The BS2 to be exact).· I don't know anything about it, but I can tell it's way beter then it already.

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Post Edited (SciTech02) : 4/20/2006 9:38:51 PM GMT

Mike Green

Although there are quite a few threads in this topic, really most of what you're asking has already been answered here in some detail. The executive summary is that the Propeller chip is a new microcontroller that actually has 8 processors (the COGs) each with 32-bit arithmetic and instruction width on the chip, each with 2K of private memory that can contain both instructions and data. There is a shared 32K memory and a special purpose shared controller (the HUB) that handles the shared access to the common memory and some other functions (like initialization). Each processor can be programmed in assembly language or an interpreted language called SPIN. The interpreter for this is in on-chip ROM and is copied into each COG that requires it. Each processor can control any of 32 I/O pins and can independently do timing including going to sleep for a specified time or I/O event. The overall chip can run with up to an 80 MHz internal clock using up to a 5 MHz crystal or other timebase (4 internal clocks per instruction).

How's that?