Re: can anyone recommend me a microcontroller

On Mar 26, 10:01 am, Tim Wescott <t...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:13:33 -0700, panfilero wrote:
Hello,

I'm in need of a small microcontroller that has ADC and DAC capabilities
and PWM also but not much of anything else.... most the
microcontroller's I've found while trying to search for these criteria
are a little overkill...... an 8 bit or 16 bit would probally be fine,
low power would be great but ADC and DAC are the main things I'm looking
for... I've thought about a PIC but I've never used one of those.... and
hear that they are not programmable in C and have a small instruction
set.... any suggestions?

thanks
J.

What's wrong with a small instruction set? More importantly, PICs (and
8051s) have instruction sets that are an awkward fit with C, but you can
get C compilers for them that work reasonably well. The Atmel AVR has an
instruction set that is small but is a very good fit with C -- it also
has wimpy drive pins and in the past has had a reputation for having poor
supply-chain performance, at least in small quantities.

Most anything you can get in an 8-bit microprocessor that has an ADC will
also have PWM output, a fair amount of timer resources, and no DAC per
se. You'll have to use the PWM output for a DAC, or use external.

I'd look at PIC, AVR, H8, and the many 8051-core micros out there. You
may want to find EDN magazine's web site and see if they've got a current
microprocessor directory -- that'll give you _lots_ of ideas for places
to look.

--
Tim Wescott
Control systems and communications consultinghttp://www.wescottdesign.com

Need to learn how to apply control theory in your embedded system?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" by Tim Wescott
Elsevier/Newnes,http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

Hmm... so how big do I have to get before I start running into some
microcontrollers that include the DAC? Thanks for the EDN tip I'll
start checking there, I'm just having a hard time conducting a search
for what I need. thanks
.

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