32bit PICs announced

Interesting, so that's where MIPS is surfacing :)

A little light on the peripherals (no 32 bit timers?), and only 10b ADCs (?!) but a good code-size range, and ahead of the now venerable ARM7's

Will this cannibalise the dsPICxx market ?

A $50 starter kit is impressive (if a bit vanilla, and no mention of code Size limitations ?)

-jg

The first devices appear to be pin and peripheral compatible with PIC24/dsPIC.

"The MPLAB C32 Student Edition has full optimizations that never expire and a compiler code size limit of 64 Kbytes. To activate the Student Edition, insert the free license key during installation. Without the license key, the default code size limit is 16 Kbytes"

You can download the source though:

But how much will they cost?

Also, why don't they have a 40-pin DIP version :-)

-- /* snipped-for-privacy@world.std.com AB1GO */ /* Joseph H. Allen */ int a[1817];main(z,p,q,r){for(p=80;q+p-80;p-=2*a[p])for(z=9;z--;)q=3&(r=time(0)

PIC32 family come in 64- or 100-pin TQFP packages. $2.95/10K PIC32MX300F032H 32KF 8KB RAM 64-pin TQFP $5.30/10K PIC32MX360F512L 512KB 32KB RAM 100-pin TQFP

Any idea how they compare operationally ?

So whose compiler is this based on ?

If it is open-source, why all the 16K/64K-with-key timed-optimize fancy footwork/nonsense ?

-jg

Its based on the MIPS GCC implementation, but with Microchip bells and whistles.

Don't know, but as per my previous link, you can download the source. You can also download an unlimited binary from the MIPS site, but don't get the bells and whistles - eg automatic population of the correct interrupt vectors, etc.

It just needs external DRAM support, like the MX31 ARM stuff from Freescale.

It's a 32-bit CPU, so I should be able to run Linux! Maybe in the future.

What would be really nice is a multi-chip module so that it still looks like a microcontroller, but it has 128 MB of RAM (one 1 Gb die's worth).

-- /* snipped-for-privacy@world.std.com AB1GO */ /* Joseph H. Allen */ int a[1817];main(z,p,q,r){for(p=80;q+p-80;p-=2*a[p])for(z=9;z--;)q=3&(r=time(0)

I heard from a compiler vendor that they were expecting Microchip to take their architecture to the limit by releasing a 29 bit processor, I guess this was canned at the last moment ;-)

Should give the MIPS architecture a new life.

"Joseph H Allen" skrev i meddelandet news:fgo62v$ncg$ snipped-for-privacy@pcls6.std.com...

Would be really great, considering that you do not have an external bus interface ;-) You could perhaps connect another processor WITH a bus interface to the MCM. Plenty of those around.

Well, they do have the (ds)PIC33, so should we take a PIC32 as a 3% step-back, or perhaps a natural binary rounding of the PIC33 ;)

-jg

It's not 128 MB (only 16 MB Ram, 4 MB Flash), but look at:

(Never tried it myself, but it's a nice idea.)

If you're watching pay-TV there's a fair chance you're doing so on a box using a MIPS CPU - several of the manufacturers of SoCs for settop boxes use MIPS (in 32, 64 and multi-threaded 32-bit varieties!)

pete

I've just ordered one of the $50 kits for it, although it costs twice that here in the UK with handling charge, delivery, and tax. I should get it on Friday.

Leon

There is a FreeRTOS.org demo targeted specifically at the $50 kit too, it will be available very shortly.

If it's targeted to the $50 kit, please clarify how did you tested/developed it (which dev. platform did you use), my related secondary question is can I use the kit with MS Vista (vs. "XP only" as I read on the Microchip's web page)?

-- =^.^= St>>>

I am using XP. I have only just switched to XP from Win2K so have no clue about Vista I'm afraid, but as you say the docs say Vista support is 'planned'.

Little endian - yuck :)

Announced, and already living in the past:

"Note: The PIC32 Starter Kit software runs on Windows XP and Windows 2000 only. Support for Microsoft Windows Vista is planned."

They are not alone there.

What actually STOPS it working under Vista,. or is it just not-tested ?

- Surely Microsoft designs their OS's to be SW compatible ?

-jg