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Upgrading to ARM Advice.

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Rocketman46

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Hi,

I am currently working with a AVR ATmega328P, and I am seriously thinking of upgrading to an ARM M0, but I need your feedback on some of my reasons, and if they are justified.

1) I am just about to make a car related project that will be working in the engine compartment. Am I correct in thinking the ARM M0 is manufactured to a higher quality over the ATmega328P, and I/O pins are stronger and less susceptible to breaking. Overall the ARM chips are stronger?

2) In the future I would like to move onto more complex projects and ARM processors offer more functionality for this.

3) The M0 range now offer a good lower power solution to match the 8 and 16bit micros.

4) Briefly, how hard will it be to move all my AVR code over to an ARM M0. People say ARM considerably harder than 8 and 16 bits micros. How much harder?

5) Which manufacturer NXP or ST offer the best support and documentation?

Thanks,

Rocketman46.
 

1) You want to use parts that are qualified to automotive environmental standards, which are more demanding than industrial standards. If you like AVR and ATMEGA chips, you can get those in automotive qualified versions:
http://www.atmel.com/products/microcontrollers/avr/automotive_avr.aspx
If you WANT to move to ARM processors for OTHER reasons ("strong" not being one of them) then you still want to use an automotive qualified ARM processors from any of the vendors that offer the processor & peripherals set and IC package that best fits your needs.

2) ARM processors are available with many peripherals and clock speeds, and with co-processors. But, if you won't use those features, it is a moot point unless the primary reason is to learn about new micros -which isn't a bad thing ither.

3) If you are in an automotive application, you probably don't need to worry about the low power modes (much anyway) of the ARM chips. They will generally still use more power than the AEQ AVR chips, if the AVR chips have enough processing power for your application.

4) It all depends on how well you've written and architected your code! The upper level code/functions should (ideally) require no, or very little modification. Where all the changes are needed are in the ISRs (BIG DIFFERENCES there) and peripherals interfacing.

5) Both NXP and ST have good offerings in this market space, as do TI, ATMEL, and numerous others. I've used NXP ARM chips most often though - largely by chance than intentionally (several times the chips were already chosen by the client for the project). They do differ in peripherals, RAM, flash, and other features. What IDE toolchain would you prefer to use? In some ways, it might be easier for you to stick with ATMEL and their software chain. In most projects, I end up dealing more with th toolchain supplier than the chip supplier for tech support, though I hav had good experiences with NXP. NXP recently purchased Freescale, so right now their tech support seems a bit stretched and running in parallel universes as they try to merge (2) different tech support systems together.
 
Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I was thinking of going NXP M0, but as you said there forums are quite slow getting replies. I want to move forward with my learning but is it a worthy jump. If the support is good, the jump is easier.

I will review my AVR situation again.

Rocketman46
 

Try cypress PSOC. The PSOC design system is mind blowing its way beyond the capabilities of any ARM system out there, also the proto-typing kit is very cheap (10USD) and includes on-board programmer (can be detached) (with bootloader support if required) and a bunch of I/Os

The PSOC system is unique in that any component like ADC, opamp, multiplexer etc. can be configured and linked to any pin on the ARM device using the PSOC creator IDE.

I just completed a design using the CY8C prototyping kit (cost 6$), this involved a 12 bit ADC and a Analog multiplexer all on board the ARM chip.

The description on their info sheet 'PSoC Creator and PSoC form a uniquely flexible combination to design and build your own system-on-chip in less time than it takes you to read the competitors' data sheets!' aptly describes the product.

The only drawback is probably too much documentation !

Once you get use to this, its highly unlikely you will look for another system.
 

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