High-End Micrcontrollers - Recommendations

[louarnold]

This is new thread on a similar topic to "Beginner Microcontrollers". However, I want to know what people are using on the job. I want to concentrate on hardware, software and skills that will get me a job.

Please make your recommendations here for development kits - an MCU with interface points, software tools to go with it, and debugging hardware. Please add the rationale for your recommendations. Please recommend currently used devices and not those over 3 years old; technology moves too quickly to start that far back.

My goals are embedded systems design - with a software emphasis. I want to write drivers and adapt OS kernals for microcontrollers, but for 32 bit systems and higher-end controllers.

Many thanks,
Lou.

 

[georgz]

However, I want to know what people are using on the job. I want to concentrate on hardware, software and skills that will get me a job.

Please make your recommendations here for development kits - an MCU with interface points, software tools to go with it, and debugging hardware. Please add the rationale for your recommendations. Please recommend currently used devices and not those over 3 years old; technology moves too quickly to start that far back.

My goals are embedded systems design - with a software emphasis. I want to write drivers and adapt OS kernals for microcontrollers, but for 32 bit systems and higher-end controllers.

Many thanks,
Lou.

Do you have any knowledge over the microcontrollers or you are just a beginner? Getting to 32bit systems it's not a simple task for a beginner, not a simple task for
an experienced programmer either. Just you skills on microcontrollers wont get you a job by the way, a degree will.

To begin with, i wouldnt recommend a development board, buy a breadboard make yourself the circuit make all the adjustments, use sensors, lcds check how the circuit works. I dont like things that already made by someone else.

People on the job uses all the technology they can in order to make their life easier and their projects cheaper even if that means using a 10 year old 8bit 8pin uC. If it gets the job done why use a 32bit microcontroller? The reason i'm saying that is
that you should start from the beginning learn about binary, gates, flip-flops.
Learn as many as you can one step at a time.

In conclusion, i would recommend try experiment with pic uC. 16F887 and 18F4550 will get you most of the projects you wish to make and will keep you busy for a couple of years.

 

[lockman_akim]

vist my website:

www.thelocxresearch.tk

i know the technology quite old..but if you are beginner in µC..
i think my website will help u to build your own board and it tell u little bit about
software development for µC communication..

hahaha..just telling u laa..hope will help..

 

[Sink0]

I think you should go for ARM microcontroler.. They seem to be the most used 32 bits uC on the Market. I cant advise you with a vendor name, sorry. But as millwood wrote at you rother topic, you should focus on programming for embbed processors, and not for a specific one.

 

[bobsanjose]

You should really tell us more about your experience so far that would make it much easier to recommend something appropriate.
If you want to get into board layout and hardware then Georgez is right, make you own board although it is not easy to do a breadboard with BGA packages and all higher end MCUs are predominantly available in fine pitch QFPs or BGAs.
If you want to learn an architecture do NOT build your of hardware, too many unknowns. Use a tested hardware instead and get a jump start. There are hundreds of board out there. Invest $20 more and opt out of Chinese more or less translated documentation that can save you days of work.
One architecture that can help you a lot is ARM Cortex-Mx. IMHO not high end but widely used and with string growth in the industry.
To get a feeling what kind of Chips are available, have a look here:
**broken link removed**
If you are eager to learn hard- and software check out the Cypress PSoC 5, not the lowest cost eval kit but very powerful to learn digital, analog hardware and embedded programming too.
Actel SmartFusion is another option for the combined hardware / software skills.
If you are looking for "just" software, LPC1xxx and STM32 are great starters.
One particularly nice system comes from Raisonance, the so called Primer2.
**broken link removed**
For real high end MCUs I would recommend the Beagle-Board (Google).
Hope that includes your definition of High End MCUS and helps to get started.

Cheers, Bob

 

[louarnold]

If you read my original post and the "Beginner Microcontrollers" thread with recent comments you would have seen the recommendations for beginners and my own experience. I gave the rationale for this thread and that should be enough to guide you. Please consider these things and post appropriately.

Lou.

Added after 6 minutes:

I think you should go for ARM microcontroler.. They seem to be the most used 32 bits uC on the Market. I cant advise you with a vendor name, sorry. But as millwood wrote at you rother topic, you should focus on programming for embbed processors, and not for a specific one.

Sink0,
I recall his response, and yours. Yes, I will have to look for brand names, but don't hesitate to post if you can recommend one after all.
It was suggested that I start this thread rather than continue the old one for a new topic.
Thank you again.
Lou

Added after 1 minutes:

vist my website:

www.thelocxresearch.tk

i know the technology quite old..but if you are beginner in µC..
i think my website will help u to build your own board and it tell u little bit about
software development for µC communication..

hahaha..just telling u laa..hope will help..

I am not a beginner, and I do not wish to build a development board.

Added after 5 minutes:

However, I want to know what people are using on the job. I want to concentrate on hardware, software and skills that will get me a job.

Please make your recommendations here for development kits - an MCU with interface points, software tools to go with it, and debugging hardware. Please add the rationale for your recommendations. Please recommend currently used devices and not those over 3 years old; technology moves too quickly to start that far back.

My goals are embedded systems design - with a software emphasis. I want to write drivers and adapt OS kernals for microcontrollers, but for 32 bit systems and higher-end controllers.

Many thanks,
Lou.

Do you have any knowledge over the microcontrollers or you are just a beginner? Getting to 32bit systems it's not a simple task for a beginner, not a simple task for
an experienced programmer either. Just you skills on microcontrollers wont get you a job by the way, a degree will.

To begin with, i wouldnt recommend a development board, buy a breadboard make yourself the circuit make all the adjustments, use sensors, lcds check how the circuit works. I dont like things that already made by someone else.

People on the job uses all the technology they can in order to make their life easier and their projects cheaper even if that means using a 10 year old 8bit 8pin uC. If it gets the job done why use a 32bit microcontroller? The reason i'm saying that is
that you should start from the beginning learn about binary, gates, flip-flops.
Learn as many as you can one step at a time.

In conclusion, i would recommend try experiment with pic uC. 16F887 and 18F4550 will get you most of the projects you wish to make and will keep you busy for a couple of years.

Already covered in another thread.

 

[millwood]

I think the point people are trying to convey to you and one that you are missing is that the important thing here is NOT a hardware platform but a platform that provide you enough headroom to grow.

For that, many of the systems here would work, as long as you focus on directing your efforts to the software side of it.

one thing that I learned from an embedded engineer is that the ultimate goal for embedded programming is so that your code is as less embedded as possible.

keep that in your mind when you go down this route.

 

[bobsanjose]

If you read my original post and the "Beginner Microcontrollers" thread with recent comments you would have seen the recommendations for beginners and my own experience. I gave the rationale for this thread and that should be enough to guide you. Please consider these things and post appropriately.

Lou.

Did read it several days ago but did not realize until after the posting that both threads are from you. Sorry.

My recommendations remain the same though. Cortex-M based of you are looking for deeply embedded, Beagle-Board for the Unix landscape. There are other architectures out there, e.g. Renesas Rx, AVR32, TriCore, PowerPC, V850..... they all have their goods and bad sides, as you asked for usefulness to get a job, that would probably be an ARM device.

A number of low cost eval boards exist and a number of highly flexible quality eval board exist too. Unfortunately there is little overlap in my opinion. Getting your feet wet some low-cost systems are perfectly fine, e.g. LPCXpresso, Primer2, PSoC5 first touch and more of the kind.

You mentioned driver development before in the other post. What kind of drivers? Drivers for Linux or low level firmware that handles serial interfaces such as UART, I2C, SPI...?

Don't know if this gets you any further. Will check the thread every now and then.

Bob

 

[louarnold]

If you read my original post and the "Beginner Microcontrollers" thread with recent comments you would have seen the recommendations for beginners and my own experience. I gave the rationale for this thread and that should be enough to guide you. Please consider these things and post appropriately.

Lou.

Did read it several days ago but did not realize until after the posting that both threads are from you. Sorry.

My recommendations remain the same though. Cortex-M based of you are looking for deeply embedded, Beagle-Board for the Unix landscape. There are other architectures out there, e.g. Renesas Rx, AVR32, TriCore, PowerPC, V850..... they all have their goods and bad sides, as you asked for usefulness to get a job, that would probably be an ARM device.

A number of low cost eval boards exist and a number of highly flexible quality eval board exist too. Unfortunately there is little overlap in my opinion. Getting your feet wet some low-cost systems are perfectly fine, e.g. LPCXpresso, Primer2, PSoC5 first touch and more of the kind.

You mentioned driver development before in the other post. What kind of drivers? Drivers for Linux or low level firmware that handles serial interfaces such as UART, I2C, SPI...?

Don't know if this gets you any further. Will check the thread every now and then.

Bob

Yes, your comments are welcome. Thank you
Drivers I can write can be at any level. I have incorporated my drivers onto commercial real-time OS', customized kernals for embedded systems, and written bare bones drivers and embedded applications software. But these were done with old hardware. I need to know how to do it on newer hardware that is actually being used in commercial applications. "ARM" has come up again and again. Someone (I cannot recall who) suggested 32-bit processors such as ARM9, and I believe ARM11 base systems now exist that I assume are 64-bit.

Added after 35 minutes:

I think the point people are trying to convey to you and one that you are missing is that the important thing here is NOT a hardware platform but a platform that provide you enough headroom to grow.

For that, many of the systems here would work, as long as you focus on directing your efforts to the software side of it.

one thing that I learned from an embedded engineer is that the ultimate goal for embedded programming is so that your code is as less embedded as possible.

keep that in your mind when you go down this route.

I think I said this in my first post. I think people missed this point.
I am not surprised about what your engineer friend said: it is the goal of every engineer to have his software so lightly embedded that it can be dropped into every platform/system/MCU/PC/human being/bacteria in the world, now and in the future, and maybe execute reasonably quickly on a thimble.

Added after 32 minutes:

Did read it several days ago but did not realize until after the posting that both threads are from you. Sorry.

I forgive you.

--snip--
e.g. LPCXpresso, Primer2 --these are too small and too limiting.
This PSoC5 causes me some confusion: It seems small but is 32-bit ARM based. Maybe I should learn what ARM really means.

You mentioned driver development before in the other post. What kind of drivers? Drivers for Linux or low level firmware that handles serial interfaces such as UART, I2C, SPI...?
Bob

Answered this in another post here.

 

[Sink0]

Sink0,
I recall his response, and yours. Yes, I will have to look for brand names, but don't hesitate to post if you can recommend one after all.
It was suggested that I start this thread rather than continue the old one for a new topic.
Thank you again.
Lou

You should take a look at, NXP, Texas Instruments, Atmel, Freescale, Samsung, ST and so on... I cant give you a feedback about the brand names.

You should not be worried about the ARM processor itself, ARM7, ARM9, ARM11, Cortex-M3, CortexM0, Cortex- A8... They are just different on power consuption, processing power and peripherals available. Actualy 32 Bits uC might not be the best option for some applications, maybe you just need less power, or lower cost. Once i saw a very high-end EMCCD controler for a very new Telescope placed on Chile and the controller was using a DSPIC with a FPGA. For very low power embbed aplications you might want to use MSP430 or a 8 bits PIC or AVR. But after all the only thing you need to learn on each processor is how they are specific configured when programming, but the code itself is going to be all the same. Just as an example, if you look at Microchip code examples you are going to see that the main file is exactly the same for all their uC, 8 Bits, 16 bits, 32 bits and DSPs... The only difference is the file named Hardware_Profile and some configuratons at the beggin of the main file.

If you have a high budget for learning go for a Keil board and compiler. If you do not have such a high budget, get a chinese development board or something from the website www.lpctools.com and get the free GNU toolchain with some cheap JTAG cable. If you want to work with embbed OS you should try ARM9 or Cortex-A8.

Thats all