On 3/3/2014 6:04 AM, alan.b.pearce@stfc.ac.uk wrote:
> Harmony is a complete re-write of the libraries to allow mixing and match=
ing of the various modules a lot more easily, some of which do not play tog=
ether nicely when attempts to use them together in the MLA. Each will work =
fine on its own, but because they weren't designed to co-operate with each =
other. The re-write enforces co-operation between all the all the modules s=
o they use common include files and other makes things work properly.

I found a divide by zero bug in the FAT library just a few days ago. I=20
was surprised. Both at the need for an arbitrary divide operation and=20
not checking the denominator for zero before doing it.

So anyway I hope they're fixing these things. ARM and the associated=20
software tools are really taking off and I think Microchip is a little=20
worried. TI has Code Composer Studio which comes free with some low-cost=20
development tools. Atmel has a variety of good open source tools along=20
with Atmel Studio. Microchip has MPLABX which (yes, IMO) still doesn't=20
work as well as v8, and almost no professional third party support or=20
open source support.

There are very tiny low power low cost ARM chips. NXP has the=20
LPC1102/1104 which is a 2.3mm x 2.3mm 16 ball grid array.
32kB flash, 8kB RAM, 50 MHz internal osc.

Pretty nice, I say, and a pretty good competitor at $1.50 if you're=20
using a comparably capable PIC. I guess Microchip still has the dirt=20
cheap white-goods market where $0.50 is still just too much for the=20
microcontroller. The 10F200 is $0.35.

-
Martin K
--=20
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