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Posted by Randy M. Dumse on October 4, 2005, 7:09 pm
> The only disadvantage I see with ARMS (and please correct me if I'm
> wrong) is that packages are too small and SMD only... in order to do
> a quick and dirty prototype you'd need to have an adapter board or
> something similar.
I don't know if a micro can be too small. I like 'em small. Particularly
now that they are rather complete systems with plenty of RAM and FLASH
inside. Mostly they just need some small amount of support extrernal.
As far as dealing with SMT... there's always some supplier that will
make a nifty little board with the chip mounted for you.
My company, New Micros, is one. We are offering the LPC2131 with 8K Ram
32K Flash, and a 60MHz 32-bit ARM7 processor all mounted with RS-232
conversion, power regulation, crystal, LED's, etc., for $29.
We've just brought out signal pins to a dual in-line .1" connector that
are easy to use on a prototype baord, or in a strip socket. So at about
half the price of a Stamp-like processor, you've got something like 20X
the computing power, in a similar foot print (narrower). Hopefully that
will make your quick and dirty prototypes even faster to whip out,
wtihout having to mess with SMT or the support circuitry.
So back to the original poster's question, I'm not sure I'd bother with
an 8-bit PIC from the past, anymore than I'd recommend you start with a
16 MHz 286 (designed about the same year) to use for your starting desk
top. Why? No modern software even runs on that processor.
By the time you're proficient with the PIC, you'll be about two decades
behind everybody else, or with a AVR, about a decade and a half. I'm
really lost on why people are so engrained in a past, that's ...
well,... past. What's up with that?
--
Randy M. Dumse
www.newmicros.com
Caution: Objects in mirror are more confused than they appear.
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> wrong) is that packages are too small and SMD only... in order to do
> a quick and dirty prototype you'd need to have an adapter board or
> something similar.