ARM7 with longevity of supply

FWIW, the Philips LPC2104/5/6 are still in production after four years or so. The same should apply to newer chips like the LPC2292/4.

Leon

That's reassuring because I rather fancy the LPC2292 for the job.

Greetings,

We are just about to complete the design of a new product using an Atmel AT91SAM7S. It does, however, not have an exernal port but the AT91SAM7X does. A big difference between this and the Phillips (don't know about the other brands) is that the Atmel has a DMA controller.

That's one more device to consider...

/RaceMouse

If you have not already, checkout

for a good list.

Also put "ARM7" into digikey for a good overview of what is available.

Re external bus, this is available on most device families. But don't forget you may be able to bit-bang your old peripherals just as easily.

--

John Devereux

If you need external bus to connect to 8 bit peripherals, there are plenty of AT91 chips around. AT91M40800 AT91M42800A AT91M55200A AT91R40008 They are all microcontrollers requiring external flash.

The new AT91SAM7SE512 has SAM7S features and an external bus. There will be pincompatible versions available soon with less than 512 kB Flash

If you already decided you need external flash/RAM you should also consider the AT91SAM9260. Dirt cheap and runs 3-4 x performance of ARM7TDMI at 200 MHz. It is available in a 208 PQFP package. An SPI Dataflash (pin compatible from 1 Mbit to 64 Mbit) and a cheap SDRAM and you are in business.

The BootROM allows for real easy production. Connect the CPU SPI bus with a flat cable to the testsystem The testsystem has a an SPI flash with the production code. Alternatively, you can have an MMC connector and have the flash in a flash card.

Reset the CPU. When the CPU boots up, it will boot from the flash(card) in the testsystem and copy the image into another SPI flash residing on your production board. Remove the cable and press reset. The CPU will now boot from the internal SPI flash.

--
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
ulf@a-t-m-e-l.com
This message is intended to be my own personal view and it
may or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB

Seems something in the TI TMS470 series might fit the bill, if you're still looking at stuff. I'm designing a new product around one of these for various reasons, and TI has given me assurances they are going to be produced for at least the next 6 years (that's as far as the roadmap goes, apparently).

The Philips part is nice too, but I needed features not available on those.

Parametric table here:

Cheers

PeteS

If you are using latches and FFs, you likely can find ways to roll that into the MCU if you think about it a bit.

Cypress has been talking to me about their planned ARM parts that will have the PSOC peripherals. That will be an amazing combination, almost as good as an MCU and a CPLD!

I think you will find that most ARM makers are shipping plenty of parts and you can expect the quantities to continue for many years. With several big semiconductor players adopting the ARM as their primary MCU to market, this has push the architecture to the forefront in a way that will be even stronger than the 8051 MCU. The chips being made today are very good with very low power and high degrees of efficiency and robustness so they will still be in products for many years. Certainly if you go with one of the two big players, Atmel and NXP, you will be able to buy these chips for many years. I don't think they need an automotive partner. In fact, the automotive market likely will move on to newer chips since with their volumes a savings of just a few cents justifies changing to a different part.

Yes, some apps don't care about power consumption, but there can also be power dissapation issues, but I expect you don't have that limitation either. If you were using the old technology you mentioned, you will find the new parts to be a lot more size efficient too.

Yes, but will you be able to 'get at' the 'CPLD' portion ? - their PSoC claimed many things, but was very light on the details, ( I see now they claim 'No Code' development!), and they moved to more common peripherals on the newer variants.

AnalogDevices have ARMs with a small 'PLD' in now.

-jg

I'm not sure what you mean about the newer peripherals. They all have the same structure as far as I am aware. There is one hardware I2C port, but I think that is because it has some special functions.

Calling the logic in the ADUC7000 a PLD is doing the programmable logic world a disservice. I take it you have never looked at this "small PLD"? While you can build UARTs, SPI ports, and even more complex things in the PSOC devices (not to mention the analog functions), I have not figured out just what I could use the ADUC7000 logic for.

Yes, it was too complex for their Digtal Blocks! :)

I'm looking at CY8C41123, and I can see ADC 20ksps and DAC, not in their Analog blocks, but as Std functions, and the Digital Blocks that are there, make no claims at all about UART/SPI abilities, just

8/16 bit timers/counters. Whoop-de-do, to a sum total of 32 bits - looks like any vanilla uC there, even lighter than some with just 4 bytes of timers. [no mention of pwm ?]

Yes, I think they can mux to any pin, so I'd call that a TimerBlock + better class of MUX.

you'll see I did call it a small 'PLD'.

In the ADuC702x data, they claim 16ip and 14op, so that's a vanilla

16V14 pld(PLA), and it can Signal MUX, or start the ADC. Could be usefull for feeding multiple freqency sources into a single timer. ADuC702x timers have more resolution than the PsOC.

-jg

This is not a standard PSOC, it is a "Linear Power PSoC=99 Device" and is "a cost-reduced version of the CY8C42x23 that targets linear-control applications." You make it sound like the part is junk! Cypress has always targeted cost sensitive applications and they produce a wide range of devices to optimize the cost. This is just another part in a complex MCU market.

Yes, and I don't think you realize that I think that is an overstatement. It is so primative that I don't know how it could be of much use. I thought it was a great idea until I read about it and found it has very little real value.

No, it is *nothing* like a 16V14. Read the description of what logic it contains and you will be surprised too. Yes, you might be able to use it as some 2 to 1 muxes. Whoo hoo!

I don't get your position. You think the PSOC devices are not of much value and the PLD in the ADUC is a valuable thing?

No, I think the PSoC is somewhat overhyped, and I observed that the hyped elements have been morphing 'simpler', over time, and more STD HW blocks are being added (not the opposite trend) and gave a recent Cypress PSoC example.

I like the High voltage features of the PSoC device I was quoting.

All I said of the ADUC was that it has a "small 'PLD'" - just two words.

I will look at the ARM PSoC, when released, as one big drawback of the present ones, is the orphan core.

My overall opinion of mixing Microcontrollers and Logic on one "System on a Chip" is luke-warm.

The problem is matching the respective uC:CPLD powers, and tools. Anyone remember Triscend ? - or Atmel's FPslic ?

-jg

I think you are smoking the weed! Your "trend" is one new device. Any time a significant market exists, it is better to address it with a dedicated design than a programmable one. I don't get why you are criticizing the PSOC. The fact that they offer other, slightly different devices does not detract from the PSOCs flexibility.

Ok, so then you like it.

Yes, two words. I am saying it is nearly worthless and is not really useful in this discussion.

Yes, and the dated, chip based emulator is another drawback.

I remember the V2Pro with multiple PowerPC in the FPGA. So clearly the combination can be a commercial success.

For a lot of the designs I work on, the PSOC concept is perfect. A better core would be good, but the peripherals is what the PSOC is really about. Heck even chips like the MSP430 are going with more flexible peripherals. Their newest chips use flexible peripherals that can be configured for different protocols, similar to the flexibility of the PSOC.

I think you are going in the wrong direction when you compare the PSOC to an FPGA or CPLD. It is more like a flexible peripheral. Heck the programming doesn't take Mbits or even Kbits, it is done through a few registers for each section.

Let's see - oh, yes, here it is, earlier > Cypress has been talking to me about their planned ARM parts that will

rickman wrote: > It is more like a flexible peripheral. Heck the

A while ago I went looking for the detail, of the claimed "programmable" - seems that's actually marketing spin for "configurable".

Something that is setup thru a few registers is not quite a "programmble system on a chip" to me, better called a "configurable peripheral".

I see your words are "flexible peripheral", so we are closer in agreement; neither of us uses the Cypress hype "Programmble System on a Chip PSoC".

Can it do something simple, like a quadrature U/D counter ? Or maybe an IrDA UART ?

-jg