An interesting story...

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yzoer
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Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:23 pm

An interesting story...

Post by yzoer »

At least I think it's interesting...

Howdy!

So some of you might remember me popping up a few (years!) ago when I was working on VDP-1. I really got into XMOS and got pretty excited. So much so that I started my own blog dedicated to XMOS chips. Anyway, lack of time and one healthy baby boy later I'm slowly getting an hour here or there back to get back in the saddle. How's that interesting? Well...

A couple of weeks ago I started looking around and initially went for 'real' hardware, in my case a Lattice MachXO which comes in around $5 in single quantity. Add some ram ($3) and glue and you're looking around $10 for my BOM. Not too shabby. While I was mulling things over, I poked around Tony's website (http://zuzebox.wordpress.com/ - yes, shameless plug) and noticed XMOS actually released the XS1-48, which got me kinda excited.

For the project I'm working on (and no, it's not VDP-2, that'll have to wait) an XS1-48 would fit the bill nicely. Hand-soldering 48 pins -vs- around 150 didn't hurt either! What surprised me was that I had this initial urge to stick with the status-quo, i.e. CPLD's / FPGA's even though I'd had a positive experience with XMOS.!

Now, the only thing I'm somewhat worried about is that, if my project turns into something commercial is that pcb-manufacturers don't have the capability to program them, but I'm going with XMOS on this one!

-Yvo


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Bianco
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Post by Bianco »

Whether you go with FPGA/CPLD or XMOS, you will need to get the program/configuration on the target board in mass production. So I don't think XMOS will differ much from other products.

I am glad you found your way back to Xcore :)
yzoer
XCore Addict
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:23 pm

Post by yzoer »

Yup.

I guess that process should be no different than CPLD's/FPGA's given that it's using JTAG... Good reason to go with a local manufacturer rather than working with a shop in China! :)

-Yvo
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