Post by thread:AMD 186

Knowledgable PIC masters, I've come to respect the vast body of knowledge that is generously donated on this mailing list. While everyone appears to be fans of the Microchip line of microcontrollers (particularly the 16C84), I was wondering about some of the comercially available products. I'm very new to PICs, and I was getting to know them quite well, but I've just been introduced to the AMD 186 and it appears to be an exceptional device for it's price. I'm just wondering what the others feel about this choice of processor. I'm about to begin the design of a rather large project, andb being an Undergraduate student, I have very little real-world experience. Are there major draw backs to the AMD line that I'm not seeing? How about the Philips line? My lab has just been _awarded_ by Philips a full suite of development equipment, devices, and software by Philips to develop projects with their processors. I'm just looking to begin with Philips, AMD, and/or Microchip. Which should I make a splash in first? ___________________________________________________________________________ Garrick Kremesec | "There is no witness so dreadful, no University of Illinois U/C | accuser so terrible as the conscience http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~gkremese | that dwells in the heart of every spam_OUTgkremeseTakeThisOuTuiuc.edu | man." - Polybius

At 10:36 PM 8/4/97 -0500, Garrick A Kremesec wrote: {Quote hidden}>Knowledgable PIC masters, > > I've come to respect the vast body of knowledge that is generously >donated on this mailing list. While everyone appears to be fans of the >Microchip line of microcontrollers (particularly the 16C84), I was >wondering about some of the comercially available products. I'm very new >to PICs, and I was getting to know them quite well, but I've just been >introduced to the AMD 186 and it appears to be an exceptional device for >it's price. I'm just wondering what the others feel about this choice of >processor. > >I'm about to begin the design of a rather large project, andb being an >Undergraduate student, I have very little real-world experience. Are >there major draw backs to the AMD line that I'm not seeing? How about the >Philips line? My lab has just been _awarded_ by Philips a full suite of >development equipment, devices, and software by Philips to develop >projects with their processors. > >I'm just looking to begin with Philips, AMD, and/or Microchip. Which >should I make a splash in first? My opinion, I would chose Philips. I believe you are looking at a Intel 80c51 equivalent, whch is useful in a lot of other places. Also, you would be able to learn so much using all the donated development tools. > >___________________________________________________________________________ >Garrick Kremesec | "There is no witness so dreadful, no >University of Illinois U/C | accuser so terrible as the conscience >http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~gkremese | that dwells in the heart of every >.....gkremeseKILLspam@spam@uiuc.edu | man." - Polybius > >

I've come to respect the vast body of knowledge that is generously donated on this mailing list. While everyone appears to be fans of the Microchip line of microcontrollers (particularly the 16C84), I was wondering about some of the comercially available products. I'm very new to PICs, and I was getting to know them quite well, but I've just been introduced to the AMD 186 and it appears to be an exceptional device for it's price. I'm just wondering what the others feel about this choice of processor. The 186 processors are in an entirely different class than the PICs or 8051 style processors. I *think* even AMD's versions will still require external memory for a 186 design, and they are really over-kill for many applications. By your same logic, you might conclude that an old PC motherboard is the ideal solution to many embedded projects (for between $10 and $100, you can get a whole bunch of varieties of (slightly obsolete) PC motherboards, complete with standard IO Bus, expandable memory, ROM socket, and some well understood and documented on-board peripherals. (of course, there are reasons ths such old PC boards make lousy solutions for commercial embedded applications, mostly that the supply of whatever you picked tends to dry up just when you need a whole bunch of them. I'm a little surprised that they aren't the mainstay of college and trade school courses (if there are any) in embedded design. BillW

The AMD 80C86 based 186ED is only $10 from Hamilton Hallmark. Yes, it still needs an external RAM source and EEPROM for maximun conveinence, but how much could that cost? I need to look into it. I can't imagine a 512 K DRAM costing too much, and the 186ED has a built in DRAM controller. So, perhaps for $25 I could build a fairly powerful, embeded system. As I said, I'm very new (junior in UG) and checking out all the possibilities before I go nuts building my next large project. Thanks for all the suggestions. ___________________________________________________________________________ Garrick Kremesec | "There is no witness so dreadful, no University of Illinois U/C | accuser so terrible as the conscience http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~gkremese | that dwells in the heart of every gkremeseKILLspamuiuc.edu | man." - Polybius