Moving on from UC3

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savman
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Posted by savman: Sun. May 27, 2018 - 05:02 AM
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I'm considering moving on from UC3 A in my case, as it appears to be dead.

 

Looking at SAM E as a like for like replacement.

 

SAM E54 Xplained Pro evaluation kit - looks like a good board for learning.

 

Rough comparison:

=Ethernet

+Crypto Engine

+SDIO

+12bit ADC from 10bit

+Motor Control PWM Outputs

+CAN(100pin+)

+Touch
-Quadrature Encoder Interface (would have been nice)

-No sdram (Didn't use it anyway)

 

E53 chips have 64pinners that drop CAN

 

-----No sample projects in ASF! wtf! (This might be a killer)

 

Any comments, hate to invest into another dying chipset

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Tools, Compilers and General Programming
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clawson
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Posted by clawson: Sun. May 27, 2018 - 10:34 AM
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One thing in this world that is not dying any time soon is Cortex M

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Who-me
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Posted by Who-me: Sun. May 27, 2018 - 08:48 PM
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savman wrote:
Any comments, hate to invest into another dying chipset

 

You could do a table for the PIC32MZ too ?

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mojo-chan
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Posted by mojo-chan: Thu. May 31, 2018 - 10:57 AM
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Yeah, can't go wrong with ARM.

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awneil
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Posted by awneil: Thu. May 31, 2018 - 01:43 PM
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savman wrote:
hate to invest into another dying chipset

Then, as already noted, Cortex-M must be the obvious choice!

 

Not only is it not dying; if Microchip folded tomorrow, there would still be literally hundreds of Cortex-M options out there

Top Tips:

  1. How to properly post source code - see: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment... - also how to properly include images/pictures
  2. "Garbage" characters on a serial terminal are (almost?) invariably due to wrong baud rate - see: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/serial-communication
  3. Wrong baud rate is usually due to not running at the speed you thought; check by blinking a LED to see if you get the speed you expected
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savman
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Posted by savman: Fri. Jun 1, 2018 - 09:20 AM
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Thanks Guys, not sure I'm keen on learning MPLABX let someone else contribute to that one, I'll stick with AtmelStudio I think!

 

The evaluation kits don't look as good as the UC3 ones but I like the fact that you apparently don't need an external debugger/programmer. Save me some $$$ for now.

 

Funny how the evaluation kit uses a UC3 for the on board programming!

 

Also found samples for SAM E54 Xplained Pro using the 'Atmel Start' samples.

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awneil
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Posted by awneil: Fri. Jun 1, 2018 - 12:21 PM (Reply to #6)
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savman wrote:
 the evaluation kit uses a UC3 for the on board programming!

Indeed!

 

They've probably got bucketloads of th things to use up ...

Top Tips:

  1. How to properly post source code - see: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment... - also how to properly include images/pictures
  2. "Garbage" characters on a serial terminal are (almost?) invariably due to wrong baud rate - see: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/serial-communication
  3. Wrong baud rate is usually due to not running at the speed you thought; check by blinking a LED to see if you get the speed you expected
  4. Difference between a crystal, and a crystal oscillator: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment...
  5. When your question is resolved, mark the solution: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment...
  6. Beginner's "Getting Started" tips: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment...
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lfmorrison
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Posted by lfmorrison: Fri. Jun 1, 2018 - 01:15 PM
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clawson wrote:
One thing in this world that is not dying any time soon is Cortex M

How about specific parts with a decent expected lifecycle so that we don't need to design new boards and software every few years to accommodate the latest generation of silicon?

 

The last time we had to select a part in this segment, our risk analysis service suggested about 3 to 5 years remaining until last-buy for most of the Cortex M devices we could think of that would have met our needs, and at least 10 years till last-buy for the UC3A0 (non-audio-codec) family.

Last Edited: Fri. Jun 1, 2018 - 01:17 PM
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rammon
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Posted by rammon: Fri. Jun 1, 2018 - 02:20 PM
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lfmorrison wrote:

clawson wrote:
One thing in this world that is not dying any time soon is Cortex M

How about specific parts with a decent expected lifecycle so that we don't need to design new boards and software every few years to accommodate the latest generation of silicon?

 

The last time we had to select a part in this segment, our risk analysis service suggested about 3 to 5 years remaining until last-buy for most of the Cortex M devices we could think of that would have met our needs, and at least 10 years till last-buy for the UC3A0 (non-audio-codec) family.

 

What specific parts? I'm not aware of any cortex-m chip of any vendor which is EOL'ed until now. On the contrary, some families are getting 10 year old and are renewed for another 10 year.

ST for example renew the 10 year commitment every 2-3 years. Microchip claims that they will produce chips as long as there is demand.

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Who-me
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Posted by Who-me: Sat. Jun 2, 2018 - 01:07 AM
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rammon wrote:
Microchip claims that they will produce chips as long as there is demand.

 

Of course, that usually really means 'as long as there is sufficient demand' and 'provided we still have a fab line in that process' :)

 

So that gives as one solution, picking a part you know many others are already using... ideally in decent volumes too.

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awneil
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Posted by awneil: Sat. Jun 2, 2018 - 06:44 AM (Reply to #10)
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Who-me wrote:
a part you know many others are already using...

Or a part that you know is being used by one (or a few) really huge customer(s) - in really huge volumes.

 

This is probably the reason why UC3 weren't discontinued years ago.

 

 

But you still have the risk that this one (or few) customer(s) might stop using it ...

Top Tips:

  1. How to properly post source code - see: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment... - also how to properly include images/pictures
  2. "Garbage" characters on a serial terminal are (almost?) invariably due to wrong baud rate - see: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/serial-communication
  3. Wrong baud rate is usually due to not running at the speed you thought; check by blinking a LED to see if you get the speed you expected
  4. Difference between a crystal, and a crystal oscillator: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment...
  5. When your question is resolved, mark the solution: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment...
  6. Beginner's "Getting Started" tips: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment...
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rammon
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Posted by rammon: Sat. Jun 2, 2018 - 06:52 AM
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Who-me wrote:

rammon wrote:
Microchip claims that they will produce chips as long as there is demand.

 

Of course, that usually really means 'as long as there is sufficient demand' and 'provided we still have a fab line in that process' :)

Of course, usually. I wanted to say that (probably) with Microchip the "sufficient" is a lower threshold than with others. At least this is how I interpret their claims.

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Kartman
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Posted by Kartman: Sat. Jun 2, 2018 - 12:35 PM (Reply to #9)
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The luminary parts which were the first cortex m series parts available are well and truly EOL.

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awneil
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Posted by awneil: Sat. Jun 2, 2018 - 02:16 PM (Reply to #13)
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Yes - that was the example I had in mind.

Top Tips:

  1. How to properly post source code - see: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment... - also how to properly include images/pictures
  2. "Garbage" characters on a serial terminal are (almost?) invariably due to wrong baud rate - see: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/serial-communication
  3. Wrong baud rate is usually due to not running at the speed you thought; check by blinking a LED to see if you get the speed you expected
  4. Difference between a crystal, and a crystal oscillator: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment...
  5. When your question is resolved, mark the solution: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment...
  6. Beginner's "Getting Started" tips: https://www.avrfreaks.net/comment...
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rammon
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Posted by rammon: Sun. Jun 3, 2018 - 06:16 AM (Reply to #14)
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Seriously, Luminary Micro doesn't even exist anymore. 

 

For example, if a same kind of startup will appear having the first RISC-V microcontroller on the market, would you go straight with them? Or would you stay and wait for a much bigger company to come with RISC-V products (NXP, ST, Microchip, whatever...)

 

Same as Luminary Micro was Energy Micro. They were aquired by Silabs but their products (EFM32) were lucky. 

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Kartman
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Posted by Kartman: Sun. Jun 3, 2018 - 08:51 AM
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For the most part, i don’t care what architecture is under the hood. As long as i have the tools to compile and debug, then i’m happy. SiFive have risc v silicon for a microcontroller and i was pondering buying the board but the price is a little out of my range for just a fiddle. There doesn’t seem to be a compelling reason to jump on that bandwagon at the moment.

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savman
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Posted by savman: Tue. Jun 5, 2018 - 10:40 AM
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What's the difference between ARM Cortex®-M4 and -M7 chips?

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clawson
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Posted by clawson: Tue. Jun 5, 2018 - 01:47 PM
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Believe it or not but arm.com has a wealth of info about ARM processors (not being facetious - it really is a great resource) so most questions like that should be answered there. On the basis that a picture from the site is worth 1,000 words...

 

https://www.arm.com/-/media/global/products/processors/cortex-m/arm-cortex-m-series-performance-graph.jpg?revision=84a41788-9ffe-4833-a53b-7dfcef645abc&h=649&w=1029&la=en&hash=B7214CEA5271FBB45A57CEA9DCCAA29A546066A6

 

So basically it's "high performance".

 

 

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gchapman
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Posted by gchapman: Sat. Jun 16, 2018 - 06:47 PM (Reply to #12)
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Electronic Design

Electronic Design

NXP Semiconductors Swears to Supply Microcontrollers for 15 Years

by James Morra

Jun 14, 2018

http://www.electronicdesign.com/embedded-revolution/nxp-semiconductors-swears-supply-microcontrollers-15-years

 

"Dare to be naïve." - Buckminster Fuller

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