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Help picking a microcontroller? (newb here)

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alex_lw

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Hi everyone!

Would appreciate getting some help on choosing a MCU for my application, I'm basically supposed to add a couple functions to a product someone has designed for us. We've basically spent all our budget on producing the first series then discovered an issue which we have to resolve before starting to sell. Starting from scratch is not possible so we have to find an alternative solution.

Basically what I'm looking for is a 16 or 32 bit MCU based on this criteria:
- 8 to 32kb RAM
- 16 to 32kb flash
- 16k EEPROM or the possibility to re-program flash segments via IAP routines or even an API if possible
- clock from 1 to 33Mhz
- 2 to 4 GPIO pins or a maximum of 16 pins / package (
- reduced form factor, like, under 0.7mm thick and up to 4.5x5mm (space is an issue)
- preferably no BGA chips as they're difficult to prototype in-house with anything under 10k worth of equipment

I'd really appreciate any help with this. If someone is also willing to provide ongoing help with this I wouldn't mind setting some $$$ aside as payment.

Thank you and have a great day!
PS: I'm not experienced with electronics but I have a good background in computer programming and learn fast.
 

hi alex_lw.. i am not interested in your $$$. But you can use pic18f4550 microcontroller for your requirement... read datasheet for the same.
 

Would appreciate getting some help on choosing a MCU for my application, I'm basically supposed to add a couple functions to a product someone has designed for us. We've basically spent all our budget on producing the first series then discovered an issue which we have to resolve before starting to sell. Starting from scratch is not possible so we have to find an alternative solution.

If starting from scratch is unacceptable -- what microcontroller was used in the first series and why is it now unacceptable?

Basically what I'm looking for is a 16 or 32 bit MCU based on this criteria:
- 8 to 32kb RAM
- 16 to 32kb flash
- 16k EEPROM or the possibility to re-program flash segments via IAP routines or even an API if possible
- clock from 1 to 33Mhz
- 2 to 4 GPIO pins or a maximum of 16 pins / package (
- reduced form factor, like, under 0.7mm thick and up to 4.5x5mm (space is an issue)
- preferably no BGA chips as they're difficult to prototype in-house with anything under 10k worth of equipment

Why must the MCU be 16 or 32-bit?

Although I have utilize all three of the previous recommendations in my designs, according to the first line of your requirements only the MSP430 and SiLabs ARMs are acceptable, due to the fact the other devices are 8-bit.

Before a MCU can be properly selected for a project, full details of the project and its requirements must be known. Therefore you would need to elaborate quite a bit on your project and what it entails, before I would make any strong suggestions or recommendations, that being said based on the requirements stated above, you may consider the following options.


Assuming the MCU must indeed be 16 or 32-bit considering the following which fulfill your other stated requirements:


**broken link removed**


Microchip PIC24 - 16-bit available in small low pin count packages

Microchip dsPIC - 16-bit with enhanced digital signal processing features available in small low pin count packages


Microchip PIC32 - 32-bit MIPS based design available in small low pin count packages


ARM Cortex-M0 family offered by several manufactures

For Example:




Of course if an 8-bit is a possible choice, that opens the door for a multitude of other possible options.

BigDog
 

If starting from scratch is unacceptable -- what microcontroller was used in the first series and why is it now unacceptable?



Why must the MCU be 16 or 32-bit?

Although I have utilize all three of the previous recommendations in my designs, according to the first line of your requirements only the MSP430 and SiLabs ARMs are acceptable, due to the fact the other devices are 8-bit.

Before a MCU can be properly selected for a project, full details of the project and its requirements must be known. Therefore you would need to elaborate quite a bit on your project and what it entails, before I would make any strong suggestions or recommendations, that being said based on the requirements stated above, you may consider the following options.


Assuming the MCU must indeed be 16 or 32-bit considering the following which fulfill your other stated requirements:


As JS suggested, TI MSP430 Family, particularly the "Value Line" Series - 16-bit available in small low pin count packages


Microchip PIC24 - 16-bit available in small low pin count packages

Microchip dsPIC - 16-bit with enhanced digital signal processing features available in small low pin count packages


Microchip PIC32 - 32-bit MIPS based design available in small low pin count packages


ARM Cortex-M0 family offered by several manufactures

For Example:




Of course if an 8-bit is a possible choice, that opens the door for a multitude of other possible options.

BigDog

The product we have is actually a PCIe board (a random number generator) on which we have found some bugs during certification. Given the fact that it was our first product of this kind we have kind of foreseen the possibility to find issues such as these and installed a small connector on the board which allows hooking up an "add-on board" to patch any issues found with the data output. Now, before the data is pushed out to the system there are some patterns that may be recognized and by doing that one _may_ be able to predict sequences of the random data stream. So by adding this small addon we basically eliminate these patterns and make the data entirely unpredictable.

This is why the size is a problem, we can't add anything thicker than a few mms in there. Some clients assemble this board on servers which really have no space available for us to add a large board so they will probably compromise and pick another supplier.

Following the posts above I've found some MCUs that may fit - C8051F41x, SiM3C1xx, pic18f2455. The LPC11xx may do as well but I'm concerned about the ones using BGA as they're notoriously difficult to integrate on a development prototype.

Thank you guys for your help, it is much appreciated. If anyone would like to take on a small side job (helping decide on the MCU, maybe picking the right FCB or even designing it) I do have some $ saved for this and I would be happy to pay for your time.

Thank you again so much!
 

hi
this is unbelieveble that you can't repair/reprogramm existing PCI board (sw or hw) to work correctly!
?
 

hi
this is unbelieveble that you can't repair/reprogramm existing PCI board (sw or hw) to work correctly!
?

The particular chip with the glitch causing this problem has a RO flash, we can't reprogram it without reworking the boards for all the products involved. That would cost us about $80k which we can't afford. But we can afford pushing a few k into this small add-on which we'll send to clients as a "complimentary add-on" to pass certification (which is the business objective). So if I manage to make this work we can continue shipping our products, ship the add-on in a separate package and proceed towards certification. Then really fix the issue when developing a v2 of our product.

My problem is that now I have no engineering talent on board and I only have very basic knowledge of electronics :( I'm trying to learn as fast as I can but even at 18h/day spent on this, the learning curve is steep.
 

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