>> >> Agilent will be busy as a lot of their current lower-end standard
>> >> instruments are based around the 8096/80196.  A lot of people are
>> >> going to miss that processor which as far as I know doesn't have any
>> >>second source.
>> >> Expect someone to step up to the plate with a replacement.
>> >>
>> >>         RM
>> >
>>
>> A replacement is probably not necessary. These chips never were very 
>> fast,
>> and a software emulator for them on a more modern chip (ARM?) would 
>> easily
>> handle the requirements of any application into which they were designed.
>>
>> Bob Ammerman
>> RAm Systems
>>
>
> Interesting idea, but is it really easier? You can emulate the 
> instructions
> probably, but how do you emulate the peripherals? And ofthen it is not
> easy to find a pin-compatible MCU to replace them so a redesign is
> anyway necessary.
>
> Regards,
> Xiaofan

At least a partial hardware redesign would be needed, but this could be used 
as an opportunity to refresh the technology probably reducing the cost of 
the BOM by quite a bit. Reworking the software only costs one-time $$$, 
there is no savings in unit cost vs. using the old software.

As far as the peripherals are concerned you typically directly use those of 
the new microprocessor and provide an escape to the native environment. Then 
you modify the code that accesses the peripherals (probably a small portion 
of the total code) to use the new ones.

Bob Ammerman
RAm Systems


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