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Re: Replacement for startKIT, now that is obsolete

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:13 pm
by Gothmag
eez-open wrote:I'm not so sure, otherwise why SPI master and slave modes are supported as boot options?
Yes, you're right. It should be possible, it just uses extra pins. Although that leaves a bit of software to work out.

Re: Replacement for startKIT, now that is obsolete

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 9:32 pm
by tggzzz
Gothmag wrote:Well that's the thing you would have to have the cost subsidized or build in massive quantities that likely wouldn't sell through, maybe both. The arduino stuff is actually a good example because the genuine boards can be made for significantly less but you don't see that in the price unless you buy iffy clones where total cost can be near mcu cost alone.

The startkit software is sort of available in bits and pieces but not entirely and I don't know if there is a plan to release that now that it is EOL. The software is doable but I can't find the docs right now on what was found to be involved. I decided it was not worth pursuing because the profit wasn't there and I don't think the market is either. Since the startkit was released in 2013 and the xs2 processors are out your best bet for low cost is that xmos decides to try again.
I agree with all of that.

Your point about the software availability is key. Until known otherwise, I have to assume that's an unacceptably steep learning curve.

The point about making a board (or preferably just buying one) isn't for me to make or save money, but to have them available for projects. If I created one myself I'd probably just open source the hardware and let anyone else build them if they wished.

Re: Replacement for startKIT, now that is obsolete

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:49 pm
by Gothmag
Using sc189 for 1.0v and 3.3v rails, a 24mhz mems clock, the tq128/64 chips and a box header for the xtag programmer you can probably build boards in very small qty for ~30$ ea. Excluding the programmer of which you only need 1.

If I have time later I could throw a simple schematic together if it'd help.

Re: Replacement for startKIT, now that is obsolete

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 5:22 pm
by tggzzz
Gothmag wrote:Using sc189 for 1.0v and 3.3v rails, a 24mhz mems clock, the tq128/64 chips and a box header for the xtag programmer you can probably build boards in very small qty for ~30$ ea. Excluding the programmer of which you only need 1.

If I have time later I could throw a simple schematic together if it'd help.
Thanks for the pointers; I could probably dream up a schematic without too difficulty myself.

I'm less clear about the availability of libraries to do the run-time comms over USB (i.e. not via JTAG) to processes on a host PC. It would be highly desirable is such libraries were a drop-in replacement for cooms over JTAG.

And, of course, the XA-XTAG board is unobtanium - this makes it very difficult to consider recommending XMOS for new developments. Shame.

Re: Replacement for startKIT, now that is obsolete

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 5:48 pm
by eez-open
Hm, you're right. It seems that I bought first and last two XTAGs for the first quarter from Farnell. More is announced for mid-April.