Re: [tlug] Microcontrollers + linux: Digikey, ARM, NXP serial port

["Ian Wells" <ijw@example.com>]

2008/11/12 jep200404 <jep200404@example.com>:
>> (b) Any recommendations for cheap microcontrollers

[...]

> Regular MCUs are cheap in quantity. 8051 based MCUs are
> prolific and dirt cheap, but the whole architecture is awkward.
> Stay away from Microchip MCUs; they have the worst,
> most awkward architecture of any MCU I've ever seen.

I've not found Microchip stuff too difficult to understand.  The
low-end chips do need programming in assembler, which is
time-consuming.  The plus side is that they're $5 per reprogrammable
chip, and less for the write-once sort.  They're also popular, so
there's plenty of example code on the web.  The high-end PIC24 ones
have a C compiler (for Windows).

You also need a programmer unit. I think mine cost $30 a few years back.

> ARM MCUs are inexpensive, very powerful, and are friendly with
> open source tools. They are even supported by gcc[2].
> The ARM architecture is very decent.

ARM architectures are a good RISC implementation, with mature C
compilers and decent address space.  You'll certainly find it easier
to program them.  But they really didn't ought to be in the same price
league, being a modern, fast, 32-bit chip.  Jim, do you know how much
they cost?

-- 
Ian.