I had just about reached the decision to use a Cypress enCoRe for my embedded project... over Microchip's PIC16C745 when I came to evaluate the available development tools.
Cypress offers the DEVELOPER KIT: CY3654 + CY3654-PO5 for a total of $1200.
Cypress reccommends also purchasing an "application/prototyping board" but this is not necessary. And then of course I have to purchase a programmer and 2 other components that the programmer needs - a matrix card and programmer-adapter board which comes out to another $300 for a total of $1500.
Cypress offers a demo C-compiler by Bytecraft. It is free for download from Cypress.com but I could find no mention of it at Bytecraft's page! Bytecraft does mention Cypress in it's list of chip manufacturers for whom it has made C-compilers but Bytecraft's c-compiler demo download page does not include the Cypress version. This makes me leery of even trying to use the compiler... if I start using it and run into bugs or other issues, will Bytecraft support it?
Then on the other hand I have the PIC16C745 which is more expensive and requires some more external circuitry for use in my application. However, the development tools are vastly cheaper and there are many
3rd party development kit/compiler/emulator vendors to choose from.
(*note* a C-compiler is not absolutely necessary but if there are affordable solutions (under $1k) then I might opt for it)
Do any of you out there have experience developing with either the Cypress enCoRe series or the PIC16C745/765 chips? Were the development tools, documentation, example code and user support good or bad?
This decision has been causing me a lot of mental stress. Thank you so much for ANY input!
Jim