The TI MSP430 looks like an interesting chip. The low power operation allows 16 bit adc onchip. Now they seem to be doing the sort of things that microchip did in the past such as free seminars and low cost development tools. Like most companies, we have a lot of software written for other microcontrollers, but we will certainly look at TI for new designs.
Regardless of his motive, it's a good thing to share. I just registered for it. This info is better than many of the stupid question of the day posting here.
Hmmm... they took out a full page ad in Circuit Cellar Ink last month with this, but the ti web site didn't know a thing about that page. Now the session's filled up.
Put yourself on the wait list. They will probably open up a new session if enough do that (and they probably will -- it happened here that way here in Portland, Oregon.)
On Mon, 03 Apr 2006 14:25:37 -0400, Mel Wilson wrote in comp.arch.embedded:
It's probably not really "filled up". TI's web software for their seminars, at least the free ones, always seems to work this way. When you register, even if you are the first to register, you always get this message. At least that's been my experience.
You'll probably get another email shortly that you can get in.
It did fill up fast, I registered a few hours after receiving the email from TI and the morning session was already booked out. Luckily they offer two sessions out here and the afternoon still had a slots. As Jon said, if there are enough on the list they might add an afternoon session in your area as well.
Learned a lesson. Next time I won't wait for the email. As soon as the first ad is out it's time to give them a jingle.
By the way, I forgot to mention in response to this posting: The main downside to the MSP430 is price. Currently it's pretty much the leader in low-power applications (except maybe for the MaxQ from Maxim; if you're looking at low-power architectures look at that one before you commit...). The MSP430 prices are annoying, though. AVRs come down to as little as 1/4th the price of an equivalent TI part.
On the MAXQ, watch out for the high Core-On Icc, eg one spec's
5mA @ 20MHz, and inside the data shows > 4mA at a couple of MHz.
- so that does NOT clock scale well.
Another recent low power CPU, that includes a micro power regulator and has 5V capable IO, is the C8051F410 from Silabs. The regulator avoids the Icc hike at higher voltage that is an issue with direct battery operation in most cores.
Interesting. I never looked closely at this part because frankly we've got enough devices in our stable and don't want to start learning a new one... :)
You must get a better deal on AVR parts than I could. I was comparing MSP430 and ATmega parts last month, and the ATmega parts were consistently higher priced in the 1K-5K volumes.
--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! I feel like a wet
at parking meter on Darvon!
That quantity factor makes a big difference. My customer had no problem with a waaaaay over-specified MSP430F149 as a combo RTC and I/O controller at quantities of a hundred per year. For that particular scientific instrument, the value added is in the software and sensor circuitry. A few dollars here and there to make the engineers comfortable is no problem when you're selling a few hundred instruments at $3000+ per unit. Engineering for products above 10,000 units per year really does require a different approach to component selection. I think I'll stay in the low-volume, high value-added arena where I don't have to count the bytes and pennies quite so carefully! ;-)
You didn't provide the punchline - did he look at AVR and compare prices at all?
MSP430 is a truly elegant architecture, there's no denying it. von Neumann simplicity, totally transparent handling of registers and addressing modes; I really can't find much to fault with it (except maybe the way info memory is handled). But:
How much "comfort" did the F149 earn you, out of interest? I've worked a lot with AVR in my real life, and MSP430 mostly at work. While AVR is not internally as tidy as MSP430, it's really not bad (especially compared with a horror story like the PICmicro). And both parts are quite C-friendly, if this tickles your pickle.
The dollars add up pretty quickly. I can't even make a decision that's worth less than $250K these days. (These numbers are frightening, by the way).
Of course, the architecture is a simplified version of the TMS9900 CPU, which was derived from the TI 990 minicomputer, which was in turn a rip-off of the PDP-11 ISA, with slight changes (fewer addressing modes, allowing twice as many registers) to avoid patent issues...
LOL. You know, writing this most recent book is so amusing. I think I could probably use 75% of it as responses in c.a.e.
"Now, it's an obscure but well-recognized ritual amongst engineers and computer scientists to gauge the architecture of any new device on the basis of its similarity to the PDP-11(1). The strongest term of approbation you can use for a CPU design is to say "It's just like a PDP-11!". Exactly why this is universally regarded as a Good Thing is not exactly clear, but in any case, this epithet is frequently applied to the MSP430. (I've always felt that this is the same sort of statement as saying "My 2007 Mercedes convertible is just like a 1965 International Harvester Scout light truck. They both have pneumatic tires and a removable roof!"). What I think these people probably mean is that the MSP430 has a very nice orthogonal instruction set and simple memory addressing scheme.
(1) - If I ever design a microprocessor, I am going to print a line drawing of a complete PDP-11/20 front panel on the top of the package."
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