uze6666 wrote:But You'll have a bit of a problem installing it as it's only available in surface mount packages (100 pins)!
There are a few Xmegas in 44-pin and 64-pin TQFP, but you loss the external memory interface. IMHO a 44-pin or 64-pin TQFP can be hand soldered with lots of flux and a bit of patience but its not something a noob should try without some soldering practice.
I guessing we would interested in Xmegas with more than 4kbytes SRAM so see list below:
Would ethernet support be consider i/o. I really want to make an 8-bit mmo. (If I can do that my life will be complete)
Ethernet would require the SPI port so the current 644 can do that. There was a previous discussion on using a ENC28J60 to do that. Search the forums for "uzebox live".
IMHO a 44-pin or 64-pin TQFP can be hand soldered with lots of flux and a bit of patience but its not something a noob should try without some soldering practice.
Agreed. Seems to the ATxmega256A3 would be a good compromise, unless we would intend to uses external memory. Imagine what we could do with 256k of flash and 16k RAM...
Would ethernet support be consider i/o. I really want to make an 8-bit mmo. (If I can do that my life will be complete)
Ethernet would require the SPI port so the current 644 can do that. There was a previous discussion on using a ENC28J60 to do that.
The newer Ethernet boards for the Arduino seem to be moving away from the ENC28J60 to the WIZnet 811 as it has its own TCP/IP stack so you can offload the TCP stuff to it and let the main processor get on with whatever it is doing.
uze6666 wrote:
Agreed. Seems to the ATxmega256A3 would be a good compromise, unless we would intend to uses external memory. Imagine what we could do with 256k of flash and 16k RAM...
I agree with you on the ATxmega256A3. Now its bigger brother ATxmega256A1 has an external memory interface, while I not sure of how pin compatible the two are but I sure you could have two designs . The first design has two chips, a 64-pin ATxmega256A3 and AD725 and the second design has three chips: a ATxmega256A1, external SDRAM (a couple of more meg ) and AD725.
uze6666 wrote:Yes! the Wiznet chips & module, I forgot about those. Indeed its the way to go, you can't beat a harware TCP/IP stack in our context. cool.
I don't recall well, but the external RAM interface may still need latche(s). Need to look the spec again (and it's huge!).
-uze
There's just something humorous about considering TCP/IP networking for a device that would be swamped by even the most modest of .jpg images.
pragma wrote:
There's just something humorous about considering TCP/IP networking for a device that would be swamped by even the most modest of .jpg images.
The real question is should we upgrade the hardware to support all these new ideas, or should we juice all we can out of the current design?
>J
Lerc wrote:I intend to use my powerful skills of procrastination to ensure that when I get to making things, the chips will be available.
Jhysaun wrote:The real question is should we upgrade the hardware to support all these new ideas, or should we juice all we can out of the current design?
I'm all for juicing it myself. I say, bring the kernel up to a high polish, give the community a chance to publish some games, then go to a "Super Uzebox" design in a year or so that maintains some backwards compatibility.
then go to a "Super Uzebox" design in a year or so that maintains some backwards compatibility.
Thats seems to be the best idea. But will we be able to have Super Uzebox be backward compatible? If we go and change what all the pins are connected to, would it lose it's backwards compatibility.
>J
Lerc wrote:I intend to use my powerful skills of procrastination to ensure that when I get to making things, the chips will be available.
Guys, guys, so much work has been done on this kernel... let's push the current a little more!
Backward compatibility could be hard if we'd use a 32Mhz (or faster) clock. Cycle count in the kernel would not work anymore, unless we could find some sort of switchable oscillator with the right frequencies. And if we stay at 28.8Mhz, then it's not much of a 'Super Uzebox' anymore.