Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 1 reply
  • Subscribers 461 subscribers
  • Views 278 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

8 core Propeller Microcontroller experience

Catwell

The Propeller is a multicore microcontroller from Parallax inc. http://www.parallax.com/propeller/

 

Here is an excerpt from the chips description: The Propeller  chip makes it easy to rapidly develop embedded applications.  Its eight processors (cogs) can operate simultaneously, either  independently or cooperatively, sharing common resources through a  central hub. The developer has full control over how and when each cog  is employed; there is no compiler-driven or operating system-driven  splitting of tasks among multiple cogs. A shared system clock keeps each  cog on the same time reference, allowing for true deterministic timing  and synchronization. Two programming languages are available: the  easy-to-learn high-level Spin, and Propeller Assembly which can execute  at up to 160 MIPS (20 MIPS per cog).

 

The chip sounds fantastic, and seems to be an excellent choice for many different applications. I immediately think of its serviceability with robotics. With a project coming up for myself, I am considering this uC.

 

Has anyone had any experience with a Propeller uC? Tell me about your tribulations, advantages and disadvantages of the chip, and how it compares to other uCs in your experience.

 

Catwell

  • I just found one possibility for the Propeller chip:

     

    Thumper is a  Propeller based Internet Radio Player with MP3 Recording and Playback  capabilities. The hardware contains a single Parallax Propeller Chip and  some external support chips to implement a complete internet radio  player. Thumper contains features not found in any commercially  available products and can be built for only a fraction of the cost of  commercial products.

     

    Thumper's long feature set beats out many commercial  internet radio devices, many of which cost hundreds of dollars. The  feature list includes many items not available in commercial internet  radio devices. One such feature is the real-time MP3 recording  capabilities. The user can easily record any music stream to standard  MP3 files. Thumper also supports a full featured web interface which  allows users to remotely control the music playing functionality from  any device with a standard web browser. Song metadata such as the Title  and Artist information is fully supported and displayed. Thumper also  supports standard ID3v1 MP3 tags for easy MP3 library sharing. Files  saved with Thumper can be played with any device or program that  supports MP3 files (such as iPods, Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc).

     

    The real advantage of Thumper is the extremely fault  tolerant internet radio streaming functionality. The TCP/IP stack, which  provides the network protocol used to stream the music, was custom  designed and tweaked for this project. It features lost packet recovery  and fast connection recovery in order to reduce music streaming  stuttering. Commercial products and programs (such as Winamp) have  problems recovering from network problems. Thumper can resume music  streams within seconds after an error occurs.

     

    The hardware for Thumper is custom designed to be as  small as possible. The PCB size is 3.2" by 1.5", which fits perfectly  behind a standard 2 line by 16 character LCD display. The board stacks  behind the display, forming a very elegant and small package. All  external connections are specially positioned for easy accessibility.  The only connections needed are power, ethernet, and audio out. User  input can be performed via a standard Sony compatible universal infrared  remote or via any standards complaint web browser.

     

    This project was only possible thanks to the Propeller's  powerful multiple core architecture. Conventional microcontrollers do  not have the required computational power to perform the multiple tasks  required to implement Thumper's feature set. Even software solutions for  desktop computers do not have many of the features included in Thumper.

     

    Via: Parallax

     

    The possibilities seem endless.