On 18 February 2011 23:42, William "Chops" Westfield wrote= : > > There is all this hype at the moment about 32bit CPUs replacing 8bit > cpus, as the cost of the CPU and memory goes down to 8bit levels, and > chip manufacturers target the market. Original untrimmed due to BCC I suggest that the main thing that makes the hype hype is that they have no brakes worth mentioning and can't corner well on a tight twisting mountain road. http://ics.nxp.com/products/lpc1000/datasheet/lpc1102.pdf 2 mA at 3.3 Vdd at 12 MHz - that's OK 7 mA at 50 MHz - that's OK too. 1 ma typical sleep mode 12 MHz - a new and intriguing meaning to the word "sleep" Notes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 2 uA deep sleep - that's OK too - but see notes 2,3,8 2 25 C 3 All GPIO pins low, all pullups disabled 4 No ext clock, No PLL, IRFC enabled 5 No BOD 6 Pasting ... All peripherals disabled in the SYSAHBCLKCTRL register. Peripheral clocks to UART and SPI0/1 disabled in system configuration block. Low-current mode PWR_LOW_CURRENT selected when running the set_power routine in the power profiles 5 is a potential killer. A quick canter through the sheet does not seem to say what BOF\D draws when enabled. That they should do such a naughty thing suggests it is >> 0 uA. Russell On 18 February 2011 23:42, William "Chops" Westfield wrote= : > > There is all this hype at the moment about 32bit CPUs replacing 8bit > cpus, as the cost of the CPU and memory goes down to 8bit levels, and > chip manufacturers target the market. Original untrimmed due to BCC I suggest that the main thing that makes the hype hype is that they have no brakes worth mentioning and can't corner well on a tight twisting mountain road. http://ics.nxp.com/products/lpc1000/datasheet/lpc1102.pdf 2 mA at 3.3 Vdd at 12 MHz - that's OK 7 mA at 50 MHz - that's OK too. 1 ma typical sleep mode 12 MHz - a new and intriguing meaning to the word "sleep" Notes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 2 uA deep sleep - that's OK too - but see notes 2,3,8 2 25 C 3 All GPIO pins low, all pullups disabled 4 No ext clock, No PLL, IRFC enabled 5 No BOD 6 Pasting ... All peripherals disabled in the SYSAHBCLKCTRL register. Peripheral clocks to UART and SPI0/1 disabled in system configuration block. Low-current mode PWR_LOW_CURRENT selected when running the set_power routine in the power profiles 5 is a potential killer. A quick canter through the sheet does not seem to say what BOF\D draws when enabled. That they should do such a naughty thing suggests it is >> 0 uA. Russell On 18 February 2011 23:42, William "Chops" Westfield wrote= : > > There is all this hype at the moment about 32bit CPUs replacing 8bit > cpus, as the cost of the CPU and memory goes down to 8bit levels, and > chip manufacturers target the market. > > NXP in particular has the LPC1102, an ARM Cortex M0 with 16 pins, 32K > of flash, 8K of RAM, and the usual set of 8bit-like features, and a > more-or less 8bit price. > > HOWEVER, this thing comes in a WLCSP Package (Wafer Level Chip Scale > Package), which is essentially a 4x4 Ball Grid Array with 0.5mm > spacing. =A0Not hobbyist friendly at all :-( > > Now, while I myself am primarily a hobbyist when it comes to building > hardware, it has always been my perception that there are a large > number of "real companies" out there making "real products" that are > never-the-less not in an economic position to commit the sort of > resources needed to create a design based on such a part (4-layer > extra fine-pitch PCB and probably outsourced assembly), especially > during initial development. =A0And for that matter aren't really > creating boards in high enough volumes to justify that sort of > manufacturing for their final product, either. =A0In other words, a lot > of the remaining 8bit applications exist no so much because there > isn't a more powerful 32bit replacement, but because the 8bit cpus > remain much cheaper and easier to "develop and manufacture, for some > large classes of products, compared to the more modern wonder-chips. > > In other words, the LPC1102 ought to be doomed to failure. > > Am I completely off base here? =A0Has the sort of PCB technology needed, > and the automated manufacturing, become so available that the initial > "hand assembly" phases is completely gone? =A0(This is certainly true at > my real job, where I (nominally) write software for boards with many > layers and many chips that cost big $$$$$ and have very long design > cycles... =A0We've got rework techs and even an Xray machine for looking > at those BGA joints, but they're all for adjusting things AFTER the > boards come back fully manufactured.) =A0Are the "small businesses" > doing micro-based product design beyond the "we build the first few by > hand, perhaps painfully" or not? =A0Are there limits on manufacturing > technology used by/for that class of company, or is that a thing of > the past? > > Thanks > Bill W > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .