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Freescale (formerly Motorola)

Started by WaldemarIII November 15, 2004
I was wondering why there are so few
threads about the Freescale MCUs.
They don't seem to be very popular,
or am I wrong? I'm about to embark
on a small embedded project, based
on a Freescale HC08GB60 (a timer
with a couple of bells and whistles)
and because threads quite often deal
with issues about PICs, 8051s and
other small 8-bitters, a little doubt has
crept up whether Freescale is the right
choice.
Can it be the price?
Then perhaps the features that a
particular Freescale MCU offers?
The hardware support?
Development software?
Comments, please...

Cheers

Waldemar


"WaldemarIII" <bleek004@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:41988c66$0$8326$1b2cd167@news.wanadoo.nl...
>I was wondering why there are so few > threads about the Freescale MCUs. > They don't seem to be very popular, > or am I wrong? . . . snip. . . Cheers > Waldemar
I think they are more popular than people realize. I think that Motorola or Freescale haven't been doing a lot of advertising in magazines or such that I notice. Of course I haven't bought a lot of MCU types of magazines lately. But I am signed up for Freescale's email notification services. The last big promotion they did a couple of years ago was the huge 68HC908QT4 giveaway EVAL board promotion, which was pretty neat. The 68HC908QT4 piqued my interest as it is a small 8 pin MCU with an ADC and UART built in, and 4k of Flash. I still think they have the only 8 pin MCU with a ADC built in. I think most users of these chips are getting support for them elsewhere. The 68HC908xxxx series chips are so similar to HC11's that I think most people get support through other sources that cater to the HC11's. I am a big fan of the DSP56F800 series myself. So if I have a question or problem I get my support through www.newmicros.com. Several of these chips are perfect for motion control, CNC, robotics applications. They have something like six PWM channels, three or four quad timers, built in quadrature decoders, ADC's, etc. Several other chips are excellent for different kinds of DSP applications as well. These are 16 bit processors that run at up to 80 mhz clock speed. Some new chips run up to 120mhz clock. The tools that are available aren't as good as some other chips, but they have a nice selection to choose from. Peter Gray has the Small C compiler http://petegray.newmicros.com/ for these chips. www.newmicros.com has tremendous support for their boards using these chips, plus they have the ISOMAX system and MAXForth (for other chips as well), plus a nice assember too. www.forth.com has a nice Forth compiler (for just about all the different MCU's) too. www.metrowerks.com has the Codewarrior C++ compiler. For your chips www.imagecraft.com has an excellent C compiler that works well. I used it with the little tiny 68HC908xxxx chips myself. Plus www.metrowerks.com has a Codewarrior version that works well too. Freescale through Metrowerks offers a free 4k or 8k limited compiler for these chips depending on which chip your using. I think it is 4k limited for the 68HC908QT4 (et cetera) types of MCU's and 8k for the DSP56F800 series. But it could have changed recently. I think one could modify or get a version of the GnuCC compiler for these as well.
WaldemarIII wrote:

> I was wondering why there are so few > threads about the Freescale MCUs. > They don't seem to be very popular, > or am I wrong?
Yes, you are wrong, Mot/Freescale is one of the biggest suppliers of microcontrollers. The reason there are so few threads about these is that everything about them is so very well documented that people just don't have any problems to discuss about these wonderful semiconductors. Stefan
"WaldemarIII" <bleek004@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I was wondering why there are so few >threads about the Freescale MCUs.
because Motorola/Freescale seems to prefer big customers (e.g. automotive), with direct support etc. and those rarely write in newsgroups. The devices are not so simple to get in small quantities, there are no "free" and good tools. You need to spend some money to have fun (e.g. for a BDM interface). [...]
>Can it be the price? >Then perhaps the features that a
IMHO the performance/price ratio is similar to other uCs. And the BDM interface is great (non-intrusive access to memory while target is running). -- Oliver Betz, Muenchen (oliverbetz.de)
> >>I was wondering why there are so few >>threads about the Freescale MCUs.
they have own (non public) groups in Yahoo not listed in the public Yahoo directory. E.g. groups.yahoo.com/group/68hc05_08/ and they recently started a new and own community page at www.freegeeks.net Further everybode can sign at the freescale webpage for registration and mail to the freescale product specialists worldwide.
> because Motorola/Freescale seems to prefer big customers (e.g. > automotive), with direct support etc. and those rarely write in > newsgroups. > > The devices are not so simple to get in small quantities,
Last weeks they introduced the new feature to order sample quantities at the webpage for free ...
For information :
- The QT4 doesn't contains an UART ; on the QT demo board, it was a software
UART
- CodeWarrior (Metrowerks) is now limited to 16Ko.

Regards,
Yvan

******************************
          YBDesign
      Yvan BOURNE
   Tel : 04.92.75.82.81
  Fax : 04.92.75.82.82
Portable : 06.88.08.27.42
  http://www.ybdesign.fr
******************************


Earl Bollinger <earlwbollinger@comcast.net> a &#4294967295;crit dans le message :
6KOdnWCqb_56PQXcRVn-sQ@comcast.com...
> "WaldemarIII" <bleek004@hotmail.com> wrote in message > news:41988c66$0$8326$1b2cd167@news.wanadoo.nl... > >I was wondering why there are so few > > threads about the Freescale MCUs. > > They don't seem to be very popular, > > or am I wrong? . . . snip. . . Cheers > > Waldemar > > I think they are more popular than people realize. I think that Motorola
or
> Freescale haven't been doing a lot of advertising in magazines or > such that I notice. Of course I haven't bought a lot of MCU types of > magazines lately. But I am signed up for Freescale's email notification > services. > The last big promotion they did a couple of years ago was the huge > 68HC908QT4 giveaway EVAL board promotion, > which was pretty neat. The 68HC908QT4 piqued my interest as it is a small
8
> pin MCU with an ADC and UART built in, and 4k of Flash. > I still think they have the only 8 pin MCU with a ADC built in. > I think most users of these chips are getting support for them elsewhere. > The 68HC908xxxx series chips are so similar to HC11's that I think most > people get support through other sources > that cater to the HC11's. > > I am a big fan of the DSP56F800 series myself. So if I have a question or > problem I get my support through www.newmicros.com. > Several of these chips are perfect for motion control, CNC, robotics > applications. They have something like > six PWM channels, three or four quad timers, built in quadrature decoders, > ADC's, etc. > Several other chips are excellent for different kinds of DSP applications
as
> well. > These are 16 bit processors that run at up to 80 mhz clock speed. Some new > chips run up to 120mhz clock. > The tools that are available aren't as good as some other chips, but they > have a nice selection to choose from. > Peter Gray has the Small C compiler http://petegray.newmicros.com/ for
these
> chips. > www.newmicros.com has tremendous support for their boards using these
chips,
> plus they have the ISOMAX system and MAXForth (for other chips as well), > plus a nice assember too. > www.forth.com has a nice Forth compiler (for just about all the different > MCU's) too. > www.metrowerks.com has the Codewarrior C++ compiler. > > For your chips www.imagecraft.com has an excellent C compiler that works > well. I used it with the little tiny 68HC908xxxx chips myself. Plus > www.metrowerks.com has a Codewarrior version that works well too.
Freescale
> through Metrowerks offers a free 4k or 8k limited compiler for these chips > depending on which chip your using. I think it is 4k limited for the > 68HC908QT4 (et cetera) types of MCU's and 8k for the DSP56F800 series. But > it could have changed recently. > I think one could modify or get a version of the GnuCC compiler for these
as
> well. > > > >
"Yvan BOURNE" <yvan@no_spam_ybdesign.fr> wrote:

>For information : >- The QT4 doesn't contains an UART ; on the QT demo board, it was a software >UART >- CodeWarrior (Metrowerks) is now limited to 16Ko.
but only CW for the HC12!? HC08 still 4K AFAIK, isn't it? Oliver -- Oliver Betz, Muenchen (oliverbetz.de)
> I still think they have the only 8 pin MCU with a ADC built in.
Not by a long shot. I know Microchip has several - see http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1335&dDocName=en010114 for instance. cheers, Al
Al Borowski <al.borowski@EraseThis.gmail.com> wrote:

> >> I still think they have the only 8 pin MCU with a ADC built in. > >Not by a long shot. I know Microchip has several - see >http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1335&dDocName=en010114 >for instance.
And for those who care, Microchip has some 6-pin MCUs. http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=2060 -- Dan Henry
On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 18:18:39 -0700, Dan Henry <dhenry@sprynet.com>
wrote:

[...]
> >And for those who care, Microchip has some 6-pin MCUs.
None with ADC unfortunately. I had a perfect app, if such existed. One analog in, one discrete out, a tiny bit of code, and presto... Oh well. Regards, -=Dave -- Change is inevitable, progress is not.