What microcontroller to buy?

With so many different types of microcontrollers and manufacturers on
the market, it is rather difficult to know where to begin.

What I need is something that has the following features:

* very small in size
* very low power consumption
* at least 64 k of storage purely for storing data (this is in addition
to my program's space)
* some sort of interface to connect the microcontroller to a PC (RS232,
USB, etc) to allow the microcontroller app to transfer logged data.
* an interface to communicate with a serial peripheral (RS232 would
probably do)
* low cost or free Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with
debugging capabilities
* low cost or free C or Basic compiler (or some other high level
language)
* low cost hardware kit for flashing the microcontroller and debugging

The applications running on the microcontroller will generally be
small. Also, if it isn't possible to have at least 64 k of built-in
memory, I can live with adding the memory externally but the
enhancement should be easy to do.

Can anyone please make any suggestions on any products / manufacturers
that have what I am looking for.

Thank you
Johann Blake

johannblake@yahoo.com wrote:

> With so many different types of microcontrollers and manufacturers on
> the market, it is rather difficult to know where to begin.
> 
> What I need is something that has the following features:
> 
> * very small in size
> * very low power consumption
> * at least 64 k of storage purely for storing data (this is in addition
> to my program's space)
> * some sort of interface to connect the microcontroller to a PC (RS232,
> USB, etc) to allow the microcontroller app to transfer logged data.
> * an interface to communicate with a serial peripheral (RS232 would
> probably do)
> * low cost or free Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with
> debugging capabilities
> * low cost or free C or Basic compiler (or some other high level
> language)
> * low cost hardware kit for flashing the microcontroller and debugging
> 
> The applications running on the microcontroller will generally be
> small. Also, if it isn't possible to have at least 64 k of built-in
> memory, I can live with adding the memory externally but the
> enhancement should be easy to do.
> 
> Can anyone please make any suggestions on any products / manufacturers
> that have what I am looking for.
> 
> Thank you
> Johann Blake

Try the 8052. There are lots of variants but they all share a common basic
tion set architecture and instruction set. There are lots of cheap
develpment kits around most of which include a free compiler/assembler for
programs up to 4K bytes in size.

You could start at

www.8052.com

Ian

johannblake@yahoo.com wrote:

> * very small in size
> * very low power consumption

Sounds like a job for MSP430.

> * at least 64 k of storage purely for storing data (this is in addition
> to my program's space)

:(

> * some sort of interface to connect the microcontroller to a PC (RS232,
> USB, etc) to allow the microcontroller app to transfer logged data.
> * an interface to communicate with a serial peripheral (RS232 would
> probably do)

Some versions have 2 serial ports.

> * low cost or free Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with
> debugging capabilities

Some people have integrated mpsgcc with Eclipse and the jtag debugger, 
though I use a plain text editor and makefiles. I also tend to use 
serial for the loader and old- fashioned output lines and printfs to debug.

> * low cost or free C or Basic compiler (or some other high level
> language)
> * low cost hardware kit for flashing the microcontroller and debugging
> 

mspgcc, there are various JTAG interfaces available, or make it yourself 
(details readily available from mspgcc site).

> The applications running on the microcontroller will generally be
> small. Also, if it isn't possible to have at least 64 k of built-in
> memory, I can live with adding the memory externally but the
> enhancement should be easy to do.

Depends how quickly you need to access the data. Perhaps a serial EEPROM 
will do the job.

Paul Burke

> With so many different types of microcontrollers and manufacturers on
> the market, it is rather difficult to know where to begin.
>
> What I need is something that has the following features:
>
> * very small in size
> * very low power consumption
> * at least 64 k of storage purely for storing data (this is in addition to 
> my program's space)
> * some sort of interface to connect the microcontroller to a PC (RS232,
> USB, etc) to allow the microcontroller app to transfer logged data.
> * an interface to communicate with a serial peripheral (RS232 would 
> probably do)
> * low cost or free Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with debugging 
> capabilities
> * low cost or free C or Basic compiler (or some other high level language)
> * low cost hardware kit for flashing the microcontroller and debugging
>
> The applications running on the microcontroller will generally be
> small. Also, if it isn't possible to have at least 64 k of built-in
> memory, I can live with adding the memory externally but the
> enhancement should be easy to do.
>
If you get an AT91SAM7S128 you get USB and Mass Storage Code which
uses the internal Flash as file storage.
64 Pin LQFP (QFN-64 coming)

By connecting to the PC; you can drag and drop the log data.
Probably you will get about 100 kB data here.
A possibility would be to add a small (SO-8) Dataflash externally on the SPI 
bus.
This would allow between 1-64 MBit Data.
One of the  problems with using on chip flash for storage is that you must 
not
write the flash while executing out of it.
You will require a chip which either stops executing while programming the 
flash
or has an additional memory area from where you can execute.
The AT91SAM7S128 has 32 kB of SRAM which can be used to store both program 
and data.
Upgrading to an AT91SAM7S256 will allow even more data and 64 kB SRAM for 
program and data.


The IAR C compiler is free of charge for up to 32 kB C-Code (you can link 
more assembly code)
There is a low cost dev kit from www.olimex.com or you can get the Atmel 
one.
Atmel also supplies a JTAG Emulator (SAM-ICE) at low cost.

> Can anyone please make any suggestions on any products / manufacturers
> that have what I am looking for.
>
> Thank you
> Johann Blake
>



-- 
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
This is intended to be my personal opinion which may,
or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB 

johannblake@yahoo.com wrote:
> With so many different types of microcontrollers and manufacturers on
> the market, it is rather difficult to know where to begin.
> 
> What I need is something that has the following features:
> 
> * very small in size
> * very low power consumption
> * at least 64 k of storage purely for storing data (this is in addition
> to my program's space)
> * some sort of interface to connect the microcontroller to a PC (RS232,
> USB, etc) to allow the microcontroller app to transfer logged data.
> * an interface to communicate with a serial peripheral (RS232 would
> probably do)
> * low cost or free Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with
> debugging capabilities
> * low cost or free C or Basic compiler (or some other high level
> language)
> * low cost hardware kit for flashing the microcontroller and debugging
> 
> The applications running on the microcontroller will generally be
> small. Also, if it isn't possible to have at least 64 k of built-in
> memory, I can live with adding the memory externally but the
> enhancement should be easy to do.
> 
> Can anyone please make any suggestions on any products / manufacturers
> that have what I am looking for.

  You have not said what you are logging ?
Using CODE space for data storage is expensive, and inflexible,so use
8 pin SPI memory.
  After that, almost any uC with a UART will do - if you want to log 
analog, then select a uC that has a matching ADC.
  Look at Silabs ToolStick, uses their C8051F300 series, or their 
C8051F064DK, depending on your volumes.

-jg

On 13 Dec 2005 04:17:04 -0800, johannblake@yahoo.com wrote:

>With so many different types of microcontrollers and manufacturers on
>the market, it is rather difficult to know where to begin.

PS. Please cross-post (the same posting to (a few) multiple groups)
rather than multi-posting (copies of the message to multiple groups).

-- 
Rich Webb   Norfolk, VA

>With so many different types of microcontrollers and manufacturers on
>the market, it is rather difficult to know where to begin.

The Renesas M16C familly is having low power members with enough on
chip code and data flash and all the periphals you are after. Also the
other requierements are IMHO met. Use their product selector page to
decide which chip out of this familly meets your requierements best.

Many distributors around the globe produce eval boards and also
Renesas is producing their own low cost eval boards. They usually come
along with an downlaodable debugger (KD30) and a free C compiler which
is suficient for what you need.

HTH

Markus

You mentioned that the IAR C compiler is free of charge. I couldn't
find any information about this on IAR's web site nor could I even find
a download for just the compiler. Can you provide more information
please.

Thanks
Johann

<johannblake@yahoo.com> skrev i meddelandet
news:1134568890.479669.36710@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> You mentioned that the IAR C compiler is free of charge. I couldn't
> find any information about this on IAR's web site nor could I even find
> a download for just the compiler. Can you provide more information
> please.
>

Yes, if you dont know what you are looking for you would have a hard time...
Link to the SAM7 Kickstart kit
http://www.iar.se/index.php?show=20299_ENG&&page_anchor=http://www.iar.se/p20299/p20299_eng.php
Check for the ARM Kickstart edition.
http://supp.iar.com/Download/SW/?item=EWARM-KS32

-- 
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
This is intended to be my personal opinion which may,
or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB


> Thanks
> Johann
>

MCF5282 eval board from axman.com
*< 1w
*64k ram on chip + flash
*rs232, CAN Ethernet
*gdb from ocdemon.com with insight tcl/tk wrapper
*gcc 
*$149 wiggler cable for flashing microcontroller and debugging