AVR+Nut/OS vs. AT91+Linux

> Thanks very much for any advice.  Recommendations of options I haven't
> considered would be welcome as well.
> Randall


Hi Randall,

Sorry for a rather rushed reply.  There are the new AT91SAM7X devices from
Atmel as a low cost ARM solution.  These have an inbuilt MAC peripheral.

I have recently got FreeRTOS.org running with both uIP / IAR and lwIP / GCC.
Take a look at:
http://www.FreeRTOS.org/portsam7xiar.html and
http://www.FreeRTOS.org/portsam7xlwIP.html

(these are direct links so you will not see the menu frame).

There are drivers for the MAC and demo WEB server applications to get you
started.  Maybe of interest?

Regards,
Richard.


http://www.FreeRTOS.org

In article <gI8Se.7682$ct5.1888@fed1read04>,
 "Richard H." <rh86@no.spam> wrote:

> Perhaps you know... can you actually buy the tiny PCB they use in the 
> marketing photos?  Thats about all I need for one project, but according 
> to TI it doesn't actually exist as a product / demo board.

You purchase Freescale parts thru Texas Instruments?  :-)

No, I haven't tired to purchase the very minimal module shown in some of 
their documentation. Our marketing department claims we'll be selling 
5,000 per year initially of what I'm working on so purchasing modules is 
out of the question.

> As for Microchip's upcoming Ethernet controller, take a look in this 
> newsgroup for posts at the time of their announcement.  One of the very 
> telling facts was the power consumption, which seems to be way out of line.
> 
> But if your power budget isn't tight and you don't need a lot of speed, 
> it sure will cut down on the number of pins and the size / complexity of 
> your boards.  A large section of my current project is just bus traces 
> for the Ethernet controllers...

Read the NE64 specs closer. The stated requirement is 300 mA at 3.3 
volts. The 80 pin part has a big copper pad on the bottom which requires 
contact with the PCB for heat dissipation. The requirement is 300 mA, 
which doesn't mean to say it draws that all the time.

Appears one can lessen the heat within the part by providing both 3.3 
and 2.5 volt sources rather than use the internal 2.5 volt regulator for 
the ethernet.

> As for Microchip's upcoming Ethernet controller, take a look in this
> newsgroup for posts at the time of their announcement.  One of the very
> telling facts was the power consumption, which seems to be way out of line.

... but wired Ethernet devices must generally be mains-powered,
n'est-ce pas?

David Kelly wrote:
>  "Richard H." <rh86@no.spam> wrote:
>>Perhaps you know... can you actually buy the tiny PCB they use in the 
>>marketing photos?  Thats about all I need for one project, but according 
>>to TI it doesn't actually exist as a product / demo board.
> You purchase Freescale parts thru Texas Instruments?  :-)

Gaack!  *No wonder* TI doesn't have them in stock! :-)  ROFL!  Thinking 
one thing, typing another...


> Read the NE64 specs closer. The stated requirement is 300 mA at 3.3 
> volts. The 80 pin part has a big copper pad on the bottom which requires 
> contact with the PCB for heat dissipation. The requirement is 300 mA, 
> which doesn't mean to say it draws that all the time.
> 
> Appears one can lessen the heat within the part by providing both 3.3 
> and 2.5 volt sources rather than use the internal 2.5 volt regulator for 
> the ethernet.

Interesting, thanks.

Richard

larwe wrote:
>>As for Microchip's upcoming Ethernet controller, take a look in this
>>newsgroup for posts at the time of their announcement.  One of the very
>>telling facts was the power consumption, which seems to be way out of line.
> 
> ... but wired Ethernet devices must generally be mains-powered,
> n'est-ce pas?

Mais oui.  I've got one oddball project that's trying to run on battery, 
but that's not the norm.  You're right - most folks wouldn't care.

Richard

Richard H. wrote:
> Mais oui.  I've got one oddball project that's trying to run on battery, 
> but that's not the norm.  You're right - most folks wouldn't care.

Over via power over the Ethernet cable itself (PoE).

Kelly

Kelly Hall wrote:

> Over via power over the Ethernet cable itself (PoE).

PoE's definitely the direction things are headed for remote devices. 
The project I mentioned isn't statically installed, so we can't depend 
on PoE being available.  But that won't keep us from experimenting with 
it, and probably adding it anyway.  :-)

Richard

On 2005-09-03, Richard H. <rh86@no.spam> wrote:
> Randall Nortman wrote:
>> I need to produce an Ethernet-capable embedded device (including
>> TCP/IP stack) for about $50 in low quantities (think perhaps qty 100).
>
> Check out http://www.protoexpress.com for 4-layer ($122 for 2 proto 
> boards, and they get good feedback from folks that should know).

I've been using http://www.pcbfabexpress.com/ for low-volume
prototypes, which is where my $13 quote comes from (that's 2-layer,
qty 5, 5-day turn -- a pretty good deal IMO).  Once it's time to do a
higher-volume run, I may look elsewhere.

> Does the packaging (enclosure, etc.) need to come out of your $50 
> budget?  How about assembly?

Well, yes and no.  For the initial low-quantity run, I can consider
all those costs outside of the $50.  (Assembly will, most likely, be
me with a decent soldering iron and a steady hand, so I need to stay
away from BGA chips.)

> Check out the Lantronix XPort and Digi ME.  Expensive, but nearly 
> turnkey.  If you can tailor their code to drive your other components, 
> you may not need much else.
> http://www.digi.com/products/embeddedmodules/digiconnectme.jsp
> http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/embedded-device-servers/xport.html

I came across both of these, but the digi module seems to require a
proprietary development environment.  I saw something about a Linux
port, but this also seems to be semi-proprietary.  Freely-available
information was scarce and buried inside mounds of marketing hogwash,
so I could be mistaken.  Do you have any idea what it takes to
actually write code for this thing?

The Xport seems, from what I can tell, to essentially be a
TCP-to-serial convertor, so that I could essentially just make use of
a single TCP port to talk to my MCU.  Is that right?  I think I'd
rather have the flexibility to be able to have multiple ports to
access different functions of the device, although I might be able to
get by with basic serial access and a more complicated
application-level protocol to access different functions.

-- 
Randall

On 2005-09-03, Repzak <repzak@GEDhotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> In article <4318b600$0$18639$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>,
>> "Repzak" <repzak@GEDhotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> check freescales NE64 micro controler with lan interface..
[...]
> I am using Uip on my NE64 and have my homepage on a MMC card...
> There is not added write support, but the configuration of the server is 
> placed in a file on the mmc card s&#4294967295; IP adress etc can be changed without 
> changeing firmware :)

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'm digging into it, but I haven't done
anything with Motorola MCUs for a decade or so, so I'm not sure what's
out there these days.

I don't see the NE64 (or HCS12) listed as one of the uIP ports -- did
you port it youself?  What free compilers are available for HCS12
anyway?  gcc by any chance?

-- 
Randall

On 2005-09-03, Frank-Christian Kruegel <dontmailme@news.invalid> wrote:
> On Fri, 02 Sep 2005 16:18:28 GMT, Randall Nortman
><usenet8189@wonderclown.com> wrote:
>
>>Thanks very much for any advice.  Recommendations of options I haven't
>>considered would be welcome as well.
>
> Try this:
>
> http://www.zilog.com/products/partdetails.asp?id=eZ80F910200ZCO
>
> with this microcontroller:
>
> http://www.zilog.com/products/partdetails.asp?id=eZ80F91
>
> Development is very easy - the developer kit (99$) comes with everything you
> need - including JTAG/ZDS debugger, IDE with compiler/assembler and RTOS
> with TCP/IP, HTTP/SMTP/FTP/SNMP/... The controller is about 12$ and gives
> you Fast Ethernet.

I'm guessing that IDE is Windows-only?  I prefer to do my development
on Linux, though if everything else about the chip turns out to be
perfect, I could accept working on Windows.  Any license fees for the
RTOS and TCP/IP stack?

Thanks for the recommendation.

-- 
Randall