In SX Microcontrollers, SX/B Compiler and SX-Key Tool, g_daubach wrote:

Switching from the AVR's to the SXes will definitely put you in a learning situation, as there are some remarkable differences in the design philosopy of both chip families. As you may have noticed, the SX is an 8 bit device, and other than the AVRs, it does not come with a selection of "built-in" hardware peripherals, like UART, SPI interface, etc. Instead, all such peripherals can be realized on the SXes in software - the so-called "virtual peripherals". You can find many samples for such peripherals, like UARTs, and SPI interfaces in the download section of the Parallax site, and in the available literature (including my book). Due to its high speed (typical 50 MIPs), the SX allows to design such peripherals in software. The big advantage is that you can "tailor" the peripherals exactly to your needs, and there is no need to go through the messy process of configuring hardware peripherals. This caused me headaches when I had to do some projects with AVRs.

Maybe, the "trickiest" part you will have to master is the banked structure of the RAM memory, and the paged structure of the program (EEPROM) memory. Not understanding these concepts can cause you a lot of trouble when your projects grow, and you need to make use of more memory.

As you had mentioned - you were successful with the AVRs due to a lot of help from many people. When you look at the SX section of this forum, you will recognize that there are many helping hands around, and that questions always find answers here.

Now it's up to you to decide whether you take the red pill, or... :-)

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