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Blue Pill for XMOS?

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 9:45 pm
by ahenshaw
It really seems odd that we can't get a development board for XMOS similar to the Blue Pill for the STM32: https://wiki.stm32duino.com/index.php?title=Blue_Pill.
I could see this as being rather popular.

Re: Blue Pill for XMOS?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 7:23 pm
by CousinItt
There have been such things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wj8vBxFKy0

I'm not sure if anyone is doing something similar for the newer devices.

Re: Blue Pill for XMOS?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:06 pm
by ahenshaw
Yeah, I guess I meant something current and XMOS supported. The StartKit was cool, but the form-factor was so awkward that I'm sure that it impacted the use by hobbyists.

Re: Blue Pill for XMOS?

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:48 am
by ozel
I fully agree! There have been some attempts by the community in the past but it was ever enough to gain traction.
And now, with the recent website update, unfortunately it doesn't look like XMOS is still interested at all in offering a general purpose platform.

Personally, I started experimenting with the openFPGA ecosystem. The iCE40 and ECP5 series from Lattice combined with an (unofficial) open source toolchain looks pretty intriguing.
Projects on github to checkout: icestorm, yoysis, nextpnr, prjtrellis, migen/LiteX, SymbiFlow.
And there are loads of small boards: iceBreaker, tinyFPGA or UpDuino. The ice40 wouldn't replace a 1 or 2 tile xCore 200 chip for most applications. But the ECP5 comes close or even surpasses with its SERDES speeds. I'm currently trying to find that out :-).
Anyone else looking into this?

Re: Blue Pill for XMOS?

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:45 am
by uth
That was probably not programmable so I deleted the post so not to confuse you... but when I browse datasheets of chips like XU208-256-QF48, a hot air soldering and the minimal circuits for making it run do not look complicated. The docs also look quite helpful. And the chip is around $10, has a USB interface and 500 MIPS.

Designing a PCB with an open license would be a good start, but I did no do PCB design in a while.

Re: Blue Pill for XMOS?

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:36 pm
by mon2
What is the wish list here for a "XMOS Blue Pill" style of board?

Which target XMOS CPU?

Access to all I/O pins of the CPU?

Onboard XTAG3 tool?

Look and shape of the breakout board?

Expected cost for this board?