On 08/06/2011 23:13, Bob Blick wrote:
> Back when the propeller came out, it was many times faster than the
> fastest PIC, and since it had eight simple cores, loaded program from
> eeprom into RAM, it was so different it didn't fit the microcontroller
> model that we had gotten used to. If you look at the block diagram of
> it, it's easy to imagine what you'd need to do to prototype it.
>

8 ARMs?

In 1984 .. 1987 I was convinced the x86 was stupid. I still am.

I spent some time with Occam and visiting people using Transputers.

The PIC is basically 1970s design. The basic 16F is pretty horrible=20
basic architecture really. But very flexible I/O mapping and easy Flash=20
programming, so handy for loads of simple applications. People used=20
i960s, ARM, MIP, Power PC, even x86 SOC for more powerful embedded=20
applications. Industrial & Telecom systems, not just x86 shared i/o +RAM=20
servers have used arrays of cpus each with RAM.

Graphics cards are becoming more general purpose and can have hundreds=20
of simple cpu cores.

The Propeller is interesting. But without a LOT more RAM per core, it's=20
fairly niche.  Same issue with x86 and ARM. both have 4 core versions=20
and having more cores is largely pointless without dedicated program RAM=20
and and I/O on each core, like Transputer.

If the Transputer had been Intel or Samsung and Programmers ready to=20
learn parallel orientated languages then today we would have 16 core=20
Transputers with each having internal and external separate serial i/o=20
and about 32M dedicated RAM per core on chip.

I've thought many times about getting a Parallax Propeller chip, but I=20
don't have the niche applications to really take advantage of it.


--=20
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