On Fri, Jun 04, 2004 at 02:59:23PM +0200, Lindy Mayfield wrote: > ? Sorry, you're a newbie. Also halfway in I realize that this isn't my message but the other empty reply. Well I'm going to trudge on anyway. Nanowatt is a module that a lot of PIC have to facilitate low power operation, hence the term nanowatt (one billionith of a watt, extremely low power). This includes among other things: 1) A high precision internal multi-frequency oscillator that can run as fast as 8 Mhz and a slow as 125 Khz. Oscillator frequency is important for low power because with CMOS style technology, power is only consumed when switching from one state to another. So the more switches you make (at each clock edge) the more power is consumed. So a part that is running at 2 Mhz will consume twice the power of a part that is running at 1 Mhz. This oscillator let's you choose the approriate speed for your application. 2) Speed switching. Coupled with the above oscillator is the ability to switch speeds on the fly. So if you need a fast computation, you can ramp up the speed (and consume more power in the process) then slow down when you don't need the horsepower anymore (consuming less power). 3) Ultra deep sleep. Nanowatt let's you turn off everything, making power consumption under the leakage current for a battery. Self programmability facilitates writing bootloaders for a part so that it doesn't need to have a true programmer to program it anymore, just a cheap dongle and some software. Another reason I like bootloaders is that you can choose the loader interface instead of having the programmer interface dictated to you. Of course TANSTAAFL: bootloaders require program memory and possibly I/O to do their job. But Wouter van Ooijen's ZPL is a perfect example of what can be done with really meager resources. Info here: http://www.circuitcellar.com/flash2002/honorable.htm BAJ [SNIP. Keep snipping.] -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu