Do you have a question on Embedded electronics and controls? Ask our Expert, Paul Clarke

Hey Paul,

I am starting out with Embedded "stuff" and I had a question. What's the deal with the various manfuactuers in terms of the chips? I want to design something that uses an ARM7 or above and I see that you can get the processor chip from Atmel, Philips, Samsung, etc.

What motiviates a circuit designer to use one brand over another?

Also, we would like to work in the .net MF environment. If you know of any procs that have a ported .mf framework, any insight would be appreciated. I looked at the other IDEs and don't really want to use assembly or an Embedded brand derivative of C for development. After like 8 languages, it gets crazy to go after more if you know what I mean.

Many Thanks!

Ed

Some information to consider:

ARM Holdings

"ARM Holdings is the world's leading semiconductor intellectual property  (IP) supplier and as such is at the heart of the development of digital  electronic products."

"The ARM business model involves the designing and licensing of IP rather  than the manufacturing and selling of actual semiconductor chips. We  license IP to a network of Partners, which includes the world's leading semiconductor and systems companies."

Take a look at the links below and the columns for Memory, Peripherals, & Embedded Interface.  These are all features in addition to the processor core.

168 Product results found for “arm7”

Also see this Wikipedia article.

The .NET Micro Framework is currently supported on ARM architecture processors (including ARM7 and ARM9)

For development tools please look here.

Some information to consider:

ARM Holdings

"ARM Holdings is the world's leading semiconductor intellectual property  (IP) supplier and as such is at the heart of the development of digital  electronic products."

"The ARM business model involves the designing and licensing of IP rather  than the manufacturing and selling of actual semiconductor chips. We  license IP to a network of Partners, which includes the world's leading semiconductor and systems companies."

Take a look at the links below and the columns for Memory, Peripherals, & Embedded Interface.  These are all features in addition to the processor core.

168 Product results found for “arm7”

Also see this Wikipedia article.

The .NET Micro Framework is currently supported on ARM architecture processors (including ARM7 and ARM9)

For development tools please look here.

...With referance to my point before - engineers should be encoraged to select a chip on what they need, not bindly use a ARM or .NET just cos its sounds nice...

@Tech_Support

I think Ed is aware that ARM are a nice bunch of jolly chaps. His problem is deciding which ARM licensee (if any) to buy chips from. I think we need to know more about his application before we give too much advice.

@Paul,

The .net, for me, is because I already use about 6 programming languages daily. Adding one more has implications in terms of cost of the IDE, ramp up time in terms of using the IDE and the associated language requried, etc.

I have explained the choice of ARM above; in short it's because of what's in our product already. Also, from what I have seen, it's the "in fashion" proc. Having said that, since I am just starting out, I want a proc that I can scale up or down as needed.

I read your article (thanks for the link) and I agree that I don't want to go overboard on the proc if I don't need to. However, in my opinion, there are other factors than just what you are trying to physically do with the proc. For instance, if you create a design using a proc that totally fit your requirement but was in high demand and not easily available vs. one that was a bit more than you need and readlily available (at a small price difference), you may go with that, right?

Hi Ed,

As I said - you have to justify to yourself why you have selected a chips, tools etc you use. Yes you can ask about different devices and listen to people but in the end you have to make the choice not just follow bindly what you have done before, or others.

All best.

Hi ed,

In all fairness, most MCU's have the same caracteristics for general purpose applications.  Since you have chosen a processor, it is very important for you to define the device you plan to build and work out all of the processing threads, inputs and outputs.  You also need to assess your timelines for event responses.  At that point, you can look at your selected MCU to see if it meets those needs.  In some cases, you might have to use some extra hardware to make up for MCU limitations.

I have worked on many projects where the hardware was predefined and the software job was to make everything work.  This approach violates all reasonable system design processes, but you can still do the job.  It just makes it more risky to satisfy all of the requirements.

Your MCU selection is based upon your familiarity with the processor.  I can see your point in selecting an item you know well.  You will have to keep us posted on your progress so we can see how your decision plays out during your project.

Paul, I apologize for jumping in here, but I sensed the need to assess the issues and open up options for Ed.  While his approach is risky, it is not an unprecidented method used to develop prototypes for future production projects.

To all of you following these posts, I am prepared to start a series of blogs on the Systems Engineering Process if there is interest in doing so, but since the effort is non trivial, I need some assurance that my effort is desired.

Thanks

DAB

Systems Engineering Process -> Your effort is very much desired.

That's the heart of doing it right. Sometimes you do not start at either

end, but

in the middle and see what inputs and outputs are required.

Frank Senftle

/***********************/

Good morning,

I'm an electrical engineering student and currently working an a PIC32MX795F512L microcontroller project and I am having difficulties downloading the FreeRTOS on it using MPLAB X. I was wondering if you could maybe help me with some advice.

Thank you.

Hi DAB,

More than happy for people to add to this, thats the idea for people to give view points and help. People will have had experiance on things I have not etc. So its good.

Also I would just do the blogs. It takes time to get a folowing but I can say that any content generated is always welcome - and let me know when you do as I for one would be intrested.

Hi dragonball,

Unfortuantly I do not have any experiance with RTOS - but hopfully other here may be able to help.

Maybe you could start by explaining in more detail what issues you are getting.

Thanks

dragonball,

The free RTOS page offers a link to a Microchip Application Note on Integrating Microchip Libraries with a Real-Time Operating System.

If you would like to look at a different RTOS please look here.