Talk:Embedded Systems/Particular Microprocessors

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[edit] which microcontroller to choose

(Would this be good to put in the book?)

A couple of pages that compare various microprocessors:

• I expect "APPLICATION NOTE 3221: Benchmarking the MAXQ Instruction-Set Architecture vs. RISC Competitors" to be biased in favor of the Maxim MAXQ, but it seems like a fairly neutral comparison of the Microchip PIC16 family, Atmel AVR family, and the TI MSP430.
• PIC vs. MSP430 seems to come to the conclusion that, when very low power consumption is critical, the TI MSP430 is the way to go.

A few pointers to C for several microcontrollers:

• The GCC toolchain for the Texas Instruments MSP430 MCUs http://mspgcc.sourceforge.net/
• SDCC - Small Device C Compiler for the Intel 8051, Maxim 80DS390, Zilog Z80, Motorola 68HC08, Microchip PIC16, Microchip PIC18 http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/
• WinAVR for the Atmel AVR (includes GNU GCC for C and C++) http://winavr.sourceforge.net/

A few pointers to Forth for several microcontrollers:

• many Forth compilers for a wide variety of microprocessors http://www.taygeta.com/forth.html

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I think all of these things are definately worth mentioning. It makes good sense that we compare/contrast the different microcontrollers, on the basis of their price, the available tools (hardware and software) for production, the differences in pin output (voltage levels, max current throughput, etc.). The current outline also doesn't have any information on Forth, which needs to change. I personally don't know a whole lot about the language, but i would be happy to contribute what i do know. --Whiteknight (talk) (current) 23:43, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

PS: Also, when comparing the microcontrollers, it would be a good idea to point out what formfactors they come in. For instance, the TI chips have certain benefits, but it can be difficult to find them in DIP packages. Likewise, PIC18 DIP chips are very long compared to other mid-range DIP chips. We can also discuss how to use other form factors for prototyping and hobby use. --Whiteknight (talk) (current) 23:46, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

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I think the list 'which uC to choose' would be much better if compiled into table format, listing which features are available. Things aren't usually depending only on one feature. 193.229.211.1 09:32, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

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"PIC vs. MSP430 seems to come to the conclusion that, when very low power consumption is critical, the TI MSP430 is the way to go." >> Well, I think that's not true. There are many application that uses an MSP430 because it is easier to programm as a PIC. The MSP430's von-Neumann Architekture makes it quite simple to acccess its memory. The orthogonal architecture makes it easy to program it in Assembler and allows the C compiler writers to do a good job...

[edit] Links broken

The links 4 and 5 to parallax.com are broken.

Done. I fixed the w:link rot. --DavidCary (talk) 18:00, 24 January 2009 (UTC)