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From: Przemek Klosowski on 4 Jul 2010 16:15 On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:22:38 -0700, Jon Kirwan wrote: > I need to think about a class that will include both young and old, all > of whom have very little experience but at least the hope of trying to > enjoy such a class on microcontrollers FWIW, Texas Instruments just came out with a simple MSP430 eval board that costs $4.30: http://eetimes.eu/en/ti-offers-low-cost-development-kit-for-msp430-value- line-mcus.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222902526&vID=44 I like MSP430 because is low power, pretty well supported and low cost, but still has non-vendor-specific toolchains (GCC, Rowley, etc). This board looks good on features, but I haven't checked it out personally.
From: linnix on 4 Jul 2010 17:31 On Jul 4, 1:15 pm, Przemek Klosowski <prze...(a)tux.dot.org> wrote: > On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:22:38 -0700, Jon Kirwan wrote: > > I need to think about a class that will include both young and old, all > > of whom have very little experience but at least the hope of trying to > > enjoy such a class on microcontrollers > > FWIW, Texas Instruments just came out with a simple MSP430 eval board > that costs $4.30: > > http://eetimes.eu/en/ti-offers-low-cost-development-kit-for-msp430-va... > line-mcus.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222902526&vID=44 > > I like MSP430 because is low power, pretty well supported and low cost, > but still has non-vendor-specific toolchains (GCC, Rowley, etc). > > This board looks good on features, but I haven't checked it out > personally. It says value line chips. I.e. 1K or 2K program space. I don't think you can do much with GCC in 2K.
From: DJ Delorie on 4 Jul 2010 22:16 On 07/04/2010 05:31 PM, linnix wrote: >I don't think you can do much with GCC in 2K. What makes you think that? If the people who did the backend port did a good job, gcc produces assembler that's as good as (sometimes better than) what you could do manually.
From: David Brown on 5 Jul 2010 04:17 linnix wrote: > On Jul 4, 1:15 pm, Przemek Klosowski <prze...(a)tux.dot.org> wrote: >> On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:22:38 -0700, Jon Kirwan wrote: >>> I need to think about a class that will include both young and old, all >>> of whom have very little experience but at least the hope of trying to >>> enjoy such a class on microcontrollers >> FWIW, Texas Instruments just came out with a simple MSP430 eval board >> that costs $4.30: >> >> http://eetimes.eu/en/ti-offers-low-cost-development-kit-for-msp430-va... >> line-mcus.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222902526&vID=44 >> >> I like MSP430 because is low power, pretty well supported and low cost, >> but still has non-vendor-specific toolchains (GCC, Rowley, etc). >> >> This board looks good on features, but I haven't checked it out >> personally. > > It says value line chips. I.e. 1K or 2K program space. I don't think > you can do much with GCC in 2K. The msp430 port of gcc is not updated as fast as other ports (it is not part of the mainline gcc), and in particular the click-to-install windows build is a bit old. But as long as it supports the device you are using, it is a solid compiler that produces reliable and efficient code. The key to working with C with such small memories is the same regardless of the compiler - be careful of how you code, and avoid anything that brings in large pieces of library. I used avr-gcc for a project on a Tiny 12 device with 1K flash and /no/ ram (only the 32 registers).
From: Jon Kirwan on 5 Jul 2010 04:26
On Sun, 4 Jul 2010 20:15:33 +0000 (UTC), Przemek Klosowski <przemek(a)tux.dot.org> wrote: >On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:22:38 -0700, Jon Kirwan wrote: > >> I need to think about a class that will include both young and old, all >> of whom have very little experience but at least the hope of trying to >> enjoy such a class on microcontrollers > >FWIW, Texas Instruments just came out with a simple MSP430 eval board >that costs $4.30: > >http://eetimes.eu/en/ti-offers-low-cost-development-kit-for-msp430-value- >line-mcus.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222902526&vID=44 > >I like MSP430 because is low power, pretty well supported and low cost, >but still has non-vendor-specific toolchains (GCC, Rowley, etc). > >This board looks good on features, but I haven't checked it out >personally. I think it's been mentioned. I had also ordered 9 of them a few weeks ago. 6 are backordered. Jon |