Reply by Darin Johnson April 27, 20052005-04-27
Steve Calfee <stevexcalfee@hotmail.com> writes:

> My question is why are the single chippers (which should have big > advantages in memory access and EMI), soo slow?
Because speed isn't always the most important factor. Speed is also not an independent variable that can change without affecting other things. It's hard to speed something up without also increasing power consumption or noise. -- Darin Johnson Caution! Under no circumstances confuse the mesh with the interleave operator, except under confusing circumstances!
Reply by Leon Heller April 27, 20052005-04-27
"Jon Beniston" <jon@beniston.com> wrote in message 
news:e87b9ce8.0504260301.6272d233@posting.google.com...
>> The real question is why is it so poor? It runs at 3v, but must be >> really old technology. The Ubicom ip2k is a super PIC, has been out >> since 2000, runs at 3.3 or 2.5 volts, is 5 volt tolerant and runs at >> 160 MHZ and MIP. I would expect a price premium for speed, but the >> ip2k is not that expensive. >> >> Intel p4 processors run at close to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2 >> orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros >> are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are >> way to slow for this time in the industry. > > A large factor is memory speed. Flash is slow. 40MHz is quite fast for > Flash. If you want to go faster than that, then you have to start > implementing caching. You're then dealing with a different type of > CPU.
The new dsPICS I'm using operate at up to 30 MIPS with a 120 MHz clock, using a PLL. A range of 16-bit PICS will be coming out, using the same technology. The dsPICs do use a lot of power, though - over 100 mA at maximum speed. Apart from that, they are nice chips. Leon -- Leon Heller, G1HSM http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller
Reply by Paul Keinanen April 27, 20052005-04-27
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 21:55:22 +0100 (BST), paul$@pcserv.demon.co.uk
(Paul Carpenter) wrote:

>>Pentiums don't cost $3 and run from coin cells, generally. > >Alternatively who needs a pentium (or similar) with all its power >consumption/dissipation and ancillary circuit to do things like >heating control, when it would become the main heating element!
Who needs a heater element and a heater controller, when you can vary the processor sleep times :-). The Pentiums even have some over- temperature protection. Paul
Reply by Bill Giovino April 26, 20052005-04-26
"M.Randelzhofer" <techseller@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:3d754dF6souraU1@individual.net...
:
> To my knowledge the pics run at an instruction rate of 10Mhz (@40MHz
clock).
> So the Flash only operates at 10Mhz.
I've added this paragraph to the article to clarify this point: All PIC18 microcontrollers execute one instruction every machine cycle. A machine cycle is 4 clock cycles. This gives 10 MIPS performance @40 MHz and translates into 10 MHz access to either internal or external Flash memory. With the internal 4 x PLL circuit, an external 10 MHz crystal can be used to obtain an internal 40 MHz clock. http://microcontroller.com/news/microchip_pic18_40mhz.asp -Bill Giovino Executive Editor http://Microcontroller.com
Reply by April 26, 20052005-04-26
On Tuesday, in article
     <426e104f$0$3771$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au>
     noone@home "Andrew M" wrote:
>"Steve Calfee" <stevexcalfee@hotmail.com> wrote in message >news:1a5r611hh19st5u9mbipg4jph7ekhooe4a@4ax.com... >> On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 19:36:20 -0400, "Bill Giovino" >> <editor@nospam-microcontroller.com> wrote: >>>Microchip Technology Inc. today announced the first ten members of its >>>high-pin count, high-density memory PIC18F87J10 Flash microcontroller >>>family, which double the performance in low-voltage applications by >>>delivering up to 10 MIPS at 3V. >>> >>>http://microcontroller.com/news/microchip_pic18_40mhz.asp
>> The real question is why is it so poor? It runs at 3v, but must be >> really old technology. The Ubicom ip2k is a super PIC, has been out >> since 2000, runs at 3.3 or 2.5 volts, is 5 volt tolerant and runs at >> 160 MHZ and MIP. I would expect a price premium for speed, but the >> ip2k is not that expensive. >> >> Intel p4 processors run at close to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2 >> orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros >> are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are >> way to slow for this time in the industry. >> >> If you guys cannot build your own fast PICs why not just buy Ubicom? >> There is no "x" in my email address. > >Pentiums don't cost $3 and run from coin cells, generally.
Alternatively who needs a pentium (or similar) with all its power consumption/dissipation and ancillary circuit to do things like heating control, when it would become the main heating element! -- Paul Carpenter | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk <http://www.pcserviceselectronics.co.uk/> PC Services <http://www.gnuh8.org.uk/> GNU H8 & mailing list info <http://www.badweb.org.uk/> For those web sites you hate
Reply by joep April 26, 20052005-04-26
I believe the 30 Mhz dspics use an internal pll to up the internal
frequency to 120Mhz (to run at 30Mhz instruction rate), so the flash is
operating at 30MHz.

Reply by M.Randelzhofer April 26, 20052005-04-26
"Jon Beniston" <jon@beniston.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:e87b9ce8.0504260301.6272d233@posting.google.com...
> > The real question is why is it so poor? It runs at 3v, but must be > > really old technology. The Ubicom ip2k is a super PIC, has been out > > since 2000, runs at 3.3 or 2.5 volts, is 5 volt tolerant and runs at > > 160 MHZ and MIP. I would expect a price premium for speed, but the > > ip2k is not that expensive. > > > > Intel p4 processors run at close to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2 > > orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros > > are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are > > way to slow for this time in the industry. > > A large factor is memory speed. Flash is slow. 40MHz is quite fast for > Flash. If you want to go faster than that, then you have to start > implementing caching. You're then dealing with a different type of > CPU. > > Cheers, > Jon
To my knowledge the pics run at an instruction rate of 10Mhz (@40MHz clock). So the Flash only operates at 10Mhz. MIKE
Reply by Jon Beniston April 26, 20052005-04-26
> The real question is why is it so poor? It runs at 3v, but must be > really old technology. The Ubicom ip2k is a super PIC, has been out > since 2000, runs at 3.3 or 2.5 volts, is 5 volt tolerant and runs at > 160 MHZ and MIP. I would expect a price premium for speed, but the > ip2k is not that expensive. > > Intel p4 processors run at close to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2 > orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros > are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are > way to slow for this time in the industry.
A large factor is memory speed. Flash is slow. 40MHz is quite fast for Flash. If you want to go faster than that, then you have to start implementing caching. You're then dealing with a different type of CPU. Cheers, Jon
Reply by Andrew M April 26, 20052005-04-26
Pentiums don't cost $3 and run from coin cells, generally.

-Andrew

"Steve Calfee" <stevexcalfee@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:1a5r611hh19st5u9mbipg4jph7ekhooe4a@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 19:36:20 -0400, "Bill Giovino" > <editor@nospam-microcontroller.com> wrote: > >>Microchip Technology Inc. today announced the first ten members of its >>high-pin count, high-density memory PIC18F87J10 Flash microcontroller >>family, which double the performance in low-voltage applications by >>delivering up to 10 MIPS at 3V. >> >>http://microcontroller.com/news/microchip_pic18_40mhz.asp >> >>A PIC18F product roadmap is included with this article. >> >>-Bill Giovino >> Executive Editor >> http://Microcontroller.com >> >> > The real question is why is it so poor? It runs at 3v, but must be > really old technology. The Ubicom ip2k is a super PIC, has been out > since 2000, runs at 3.3 or 2.5 volts, is 5 volt tolerant and runs at > 160 MHZ and MIP. I would expect a price premium for speed, but the > ip2k is not that expensive. > > Intel p4 processors run at close to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2 > orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros > are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are > way to slow for this time in the industry. > > If you guys cannot build your own fast PICs why not just buy Ubicom? > There is no "x" in my email address.
Reply by Johnny April 26, 20052005-04-26
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 11:42:50 +1000, Al Borowski
<al.borowski@EraseThis.gmail.com> wrote:

>to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2 >> orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros >> are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are >> way to slow for this time in the industry. > >If you need more speed, use an ARM or something. If there was a >significant demand for high speed 8 bitters more companies would make them.
I know what you mean about ARM. However, there are other 8 bit micros that are faster and cheaper than the PIC18 series. I am thinking of devices such as Atmel ATmega168. 20MIPS at 20MHz. The lower clock rate is usually an advantage in passing EMC compliance tests. Atmel also offer an 8051 core that can match this speed, however the AVR will perform better with high level languages. (more registers and much more efficient memory addressing) regards, Johnny.