Free Developement tools from XMOS

A short rummage around the Xcore site lead me to The XCore Open Source Project and the Xcore Github repo, which as an open source advocate, I found very encouraging.  I also noted the contributor's agreement  which goes beyond forking Github repos and allows developers to contribute more directly back to the company sources.  I see this as a sign that open source interest at Xcore is rather more substantial than the "throw code over the wall" kind of openness which is unfortunately common.

Which leads me to a couple of questions:

1. Is the impression I've gained above correct?
2. Are XMOS devices fully documented so that OSHW communities can develop around these devices and create their own complete toolchains to program them?

Question 2 relates to the uncomfortable situation we presently have with FPGA manufacturers, none of which provide complete programming information for their devices so that it has been impossible for the community to develop full toolchains for them.  This has effectively extinguished open source progress in that area.

If the answer is "Yes" to both questions then this is going to be of interest to many.

===

Addendum:  I had asked about unit availability earlier too, but the answer was right here at Farnell UK, 6 different devices all in stock!  Excellent!

I hadn't realized Farnell stock XMOS but they do, which is great. I've never had a chance to look into it, but for many years they've had some reasonably priced demo kits, a nice range of parts and also they maintain a great library of code for different use-cases. They're based in the UK. From a quick look their documentation looks ok (not outstandingly spectacular 1000-page volumes like Freescale or TI - that would be a hard thing to exceed) but it looked good enough. Very interesting :-)

shabaz wrote:

 

I hadn't realized Farnell stock XMOS but they do, which is great. I've never had a chance to look into it, but for many years they've had some reasonably priced demo kits, a nice range of parts and also they maintain a great library of code for different use-cases. They're based in the UK. From a quick look their documentation looks ok (not outstandingly spectacular 1000-page volumes like Freescale or TI - that would be a hard thing to exceed) but it looked good enough. Very interesting :-)

I'm not impressed by 1000-page tomes (4593 pages for TI's "AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 Microprocessors (MPUs) Technical Reference Manual" rev C).  I like well-organized shorter manuals written by people who actually print hard copy every now and then.  We had shorter manuals when the vendors gave away hard copies

I think when you are paying for the paper the urge to "cut and Paste" is MUCH less

The Documentation for the XMOS stufff is normally clear and short, I have found the tech support

to be very useful as well.

All and all the hardrealtime of the XMOS potentially saves a load of brain ache as an alternative

to an FPGA solution!

I had mentioned to some Farnell guys about getting these devices but i never noticed them "arrive" thanks for pointing it out ..Should be easier than getting them from places I probably shouldnt mention

I had mentioned to some Farnell guys about getting these devices but i never noticed them "arrive" thanks for pointing it out ..Should be easier than getting them from places I probably shouldnt mention