Rabbit core, is it obsolete?

[Daniel_Arg]

Hello everybody, I'm a long time reader of this forum but I never had the chance or the need to post before. Thanks for all this years of knowledge. Here's my issue:

I'm working with a customer on upgrading the industrial equipment they manufacture. They have a main terminal based on a RCM3000 Rabbit module. The host board has to be upgraded and the question is if this RCM3000 should be replaced too. The design is rather old but it works well.

The module has 512K flash, 512K ram, ethernet and runs at 30MHz. The code is written in dynamic C which would complicate the migration of the software. The application is not very demanding, it doesn't use a graphic interface. It does stream UDP packets as fast as it can.

Although the customer is inclined to replace the Rabbit core, I find the replacement a hard sell. While the module is rather expensive, the production volume doesn't make the redesign cost effective in the short term. But the question is how far is this rabbit module from its end of life. I know no one can know for sure, I'm just looking an opinion. The other question is which would be a good replacement, I'm a bit overwhelmed by choices right now.

Thanks for reading, and extra thanks for any feedback,
Regards

 

[ads-ee]

Given that there is nothing on their website indicating that the module will become obsolete, I would suggest not changing the design. It doesn't seem that expensive to me DigiKey has them for $79. Depending on if any of the other interfaces or GPIO were used there are some other SoC modules they produce that are less expensive. I'm sure the cost of the module is due partly to the number of other interfaces (52 digital I/O and 6 serial ports (IrDA, HDLC, asynch, SPI))

 

[Daniel_Arg]

Yes, the price is not that high, but I feel a 10 dollar PIC32 and a few peripherals would be enough to replace the Rabbit module. I appreciate you feedback on the matter, I think you are right about the module not going away any time soon. Regards

 

[andre_luis]

Although the customer is inclined to replace the Rabbit core, I find the replacement a hard sell. While the module is rather expensive, the production volume doesn't make the redesign cost effective in the short term.

An intermediate solution that could meet both interests, is just a migration of hardware and firmware from the current RCM3000 to some other core of the RCM4000's family, due to the innate trend of manufacturers discontinue production of the older models to force consumers to adopt the most recent.

 

[Daniel_Arg]

That would allow us to keep most of the dynamic C code at least. Its an option. I guess we'll have to put options into costs and see what they decide. Thanks