Re: Wich 16-bit MCU?

Robert Latest wrote:
On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:23:01 +0100,
Tom Lucas <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
in Msg. <1151576507.6051.0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

I reckon an ARM7 such as the Sharp 79524 I'm using would be plenty quick
enough. Don't use this one specifically as it had loads of peripherals
you won't need but the Phillips LPC range should cater for your needs.

The LPC line indeed looks attractive bacuse there are many pre-assembled
testing modules available (like the stuff offered by Olimex), and I
think Linux is by now pretty well-suited as a development system.

Also check out the AT91SAM7S parts. They are well supported and have
some significant advantages over the LPC parts.

You can get a free, memory limited toolset from IAR or you can go to
www.gnuarm.com and use the GNU tools for the ARM. www.gnuarm.com
provides them precompiled for Windows, Linux and MAC OS.

Another question, maybe really stupid: Skimming over some of these
datasheets I've noticed the absence of any externally available,
"classical" address and data bus. Everything seems to be general-purpose
I/O. Does that mean that I have to implement my own protocol for
addressing external devices on a bus, or can the I/O pins be somehow
switched into "von Neumann" mode?

I'm sure all this will be readily answered by documentation available on
the 'Web. I'm looking.

No, they don't typically have a memory bus option. Many of these chips
only have 32 digital IOs; making a bus from them would burn all the
IOs. But there are typically versions in much larger packages that
provide an external bus. Go to www.gnuarm.com and click to the
resources page and scroll down to the ARM Device Comparison Chart under
ARM Chips. This lists a lot of features about a lot of ARM chips.

.

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