Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 35 replies
  • Subscribers 2759 subscribers
  • Views 11569 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Parallax Propeller, why is it so overlooked?

rwgast

So the parallax propeller is a 32bit 8 core micro. It is what I learned to electronics/embedded coding with! Its basically like having 8 AVR chips in one and never needing an interrupt. Currently im taking the time to learn PASM or Propeller Assembly. I curious as to why there aren't more of these out in the wild? Im also learning ARM and would one day like to switch from electrical to embedded as a career.... but I feel like I am wasting my time with this chip even though its great especially for industrial and robotics multitasking at the bear metal level. I never see a propeller chip in a job discretion or in a product. To me the prop is very close to a software defined CPLD as is maybe the XMOS.

 

What do you all think about the propeller chip?

  • clemm are you talking about something like Zynq?

     

    Ok so lets take this down to the hobbyist level Parallax has been around forever and they offer all there learning material FREE!! I am an electrician who wanted to learn electronics so I bought a friendly prop dip chip RTFM and stuck it on a bread board with some digi key parts and it worked. Next I soldered it to RatShack prefboard and added ps/2 vga and SD connectors! I mean 8 cores this sounded cool and I could use it to start learning electronics!

     

    Parallax has some boards like the quick start which are as much as an Uno, so why arduino? Why not an 8 core mcu thats backed buy a company thats made basic stamps since the 90s? SPIN shouldnt even be the issue here since it has constructs of languages like basic/python which is much easier for a coder that doesnt know C, like most Arduinoists...

     

    I am really in to SDR right now and there are examples of using the props counters only to make an AM receiver, so I can imagine the power of xmos! But what Im really in to is for an awesome SDR is the new Parallela board with the arm cpu and the 16 cores+fpga. Im trying to make the PsoC line my new chip for smaller projects that don't need parallelism over the AVR or another ARM core. I mean I can replace some complete boards with a PSoC5.... great for small test tools!

     

    Got a little off topic though why Arduino and not the propeller? Obviously Xmos is more powerfull but not hobbyist friendly or should I say newbie friendly. BTW I got in to uC's 5 years ago and at that time it was kind of like the prop basic stamp or arduino and the prop had more power than an atmeaga and was just as easy to work with software/custom hardware side.

     

    Off topic can someone tell me how to mark a response helpfull??!

  • in reply to rwgast

    I am seeing more hybrids like a a9 with a fpga mixing full CPU with MCU like bare metal.

    C

  • Are there multi core arm mcu's? Like the cortex line? I know that there is an NXP with an m0 and m4 or something but other than that im talking mcu, not full fledged cpu.

  • Given there will be a learning curve with any device, if I had to choose between the two, based on current information I'd pick XMOS because the development environment has a C compiler, the process synchronisation is POSIX-like so familiar to software developers, the development boards are cheaper ($12.50, and is raspberry-pi compatible), the parts are more powerful and faster, and there is recent silicon so that provides roadmap assurance. XMOS is used in commercial designs, for example a lot of high-end audio devices use XMOS.

    Not knocking Parallax Propeller, I don't know it well enough and I'm sure it must be in commercial designs too to keep Parallax in business, and it does look like an interesting part but XMOS are more interesting to me.

     

  • in reply to rwgast

    Im not sure what the issue is, but not having a compiler as well as flaunting a new , much more powerful version doesn't help.  THough they have yet to release it and its been like 4 years at least!

     

    Arm has multiple cores and is used in video game machines.  Just much more visibility and much more market share. They've been around forever.  Using a Prop would be a risk.

  • i have seen the prop hat and yes its cool, It extends the pi with alot of low level capability!

     

    I also think learning spin is a PITA..... BUT people learn latter logic.... Spin was written especially for that multicore architecture. The Determinism is what makes the chip so great for robotics and industrial applications. I just wish id see it used more commercially!

  • in reply to screamingtiger

    As I said I got my starts with a propeller and when I finally purchased an arduino already knowing C I wanted to do more powerful things and interrupts just seemed like an awful way to do multiple thing it throws determinism WAY off sometimes :/. I Use ARM base mcu's and AVRs alot, put I still think processing in parrallell is a much better pardaigm for small micros if exact timing is needed.

  • in reply to clem57

    That's the beauty, they are totally independent!  They are called COGs not really independent processors.  Its actually easier than using PThreads IMO.  Now they have a C compiler I may be trying mine out soon, but I really fell in love with the chipkit Pi so we'll see.

  • in reply to screamingtiger

    Anytime you need to coordinate multiple processors, the troubles begin. I know this from working on big multiple CPU's at work. If totally independent, I agree no big problem.

    C

  • in reply to clem57

    What does it matter?  Either one you would need to understand internals with ASM.  If you are using C the learning curve would be about the same....  Confused.