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looking for new microcontroller

L.S.,

We are students at the University of Twente and we are doing a real-life case for a Dutch company. This company would like us to come up with newer (embedded) microcontrollers to replace the current ones used.

We are hoping to get any usable information of anyone here. Maybe someone has done comparable investigations or maybe someone could give us a hint to find more information. Below we will provide some information about the current microcontrollers and the conditions for a new controller.

*Current controllers: At the moment 8 and 16 bits microcontrollers, respectively the Philips 80552 (based on 8051) and the Philips XA, are used. These controllers provide a realtime machine control with a maximum response time of about 0,1 mSec and about 2000 events per second.

One of the current trends is the increasing use of C++ on the 16 bits controller, which demands a lot of processor capacity. Another important thing is the increase of number of events in newer machines to more than

10000 per second.

*Conditions for a new controller: We are trying to find a newer controller to cope with the trends specified above and (as many as possible of) the conditions stated below:

- Suitable for use with C++ (particularly in the lineary address area and with many data pointers);

- Availability of C++ cross-compilers and debug tools. E.g. GNU (no front-end C++ compiler);

- Usable with a RTOS (at the moment in use: CMX);

- Many I/O on the chip: o One or more I2c busses; o Multiple external interrupt inputs; o Two 8 or 10 bit AD converter/ DA converter or PWM .

- Preferably a small external bus, to avoid problems when routing prints and EMC problems.

- Possibly internal FLASH (minimal 1Mbyte) and/or RAM (minimal 256K). External is also acceptable. (at the moment in use: internal flash or OTP to place a "loader"-programme on board and to load a flash or monitor- programme);

- Cost-effective (maximum of about EUR20, to keep the price of the machines competitive).

Maybe someone can help us a little. Thanks in advance.

Kindest regards, René Bloemberg and Erwin Elling

Reply to
Erwin Elling
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One important consideration is that it's a lot easier to hire programmers than FPGA geeks.

There is a lot of good discussion in comp.arch.fpga.

General consensus is that if you can do it with a micro or DSP, that's probably cheaper/faster.

FPGAs are also tested at the factory. Just like CPUs and RAMs and every other chip made today.

Reply to
Hal Murray

Have a look into NEC's V850 product family. You will find an overview of the devices at

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for single unit quantities start at about 5 Euro for the most simple devices and reach about 20 Euro or a bit more for the higher end ones with large on-chip memories. I think that all your requirements are covered by some of the devices.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Krämer

That's only a 5x increase ? If you are used to, and using the 80C552, a good upgrade candidate for this is the new uPSD33xx family from STm

This has a turbo C52 core, 32KB RAM, 256KBF, 2 UARTS, PLD, ADC, and JTAG ISP and ISD.... Not sure how real they are, but your need does not sound urgent.

For higher Analog and Core performance, but less MAX RAM and FLASH, look at the Cygnal family.

You can also use the Dallas 87C550, as a reasonable 80C552 upgrade, in the near term.

-jg

Reply to
Jim Granville

I accept that there is verification of the design of the integrated system, but would functional and/or performance testing of each FPGA be required for each or batch of FPGA's? In software, the software engineer would devise unit tests to test the structural integrity of the code -- what does one do for FPGA designs?

With a CPU board using an off-the-shelf micro, the manufacturer has tested the micro. Can one assume the same level of testing has been performed on the libraries for a given FPGA?

I guess this is also a question regarding the correctness of the tools and whether the simulator faithfully reflects the timing & behaviour of the target system.

Ken.

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Reply to
Ken Lee

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