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On 04/11/14 10:08, Onestone [email protected] [msp430] wrote:
>
>
> I need too high a rate for dithering. I didn't know the tools were free,
> I have old Kiel and IAR JTAG debuggers that I bought a few years ago,
> that just might work.
Such tools will probably work using "OpenOCD" - it supports most jtag
debuggers, including ones you put together yourself from an FTDI chip.
But it's probably easier to use a PE Micro debugger for $150, at least
to start with - it's one less thing to worry about.
The CodeWarrior tools for Kinetis were free to a size limit of 64K
(IIRC), but the new KDS tools are entirely free and work on Linux and
Windows.
>
> I'm a dinosaur, good as the compilers might be I still prefer assembler,
> then any mistakes I make are my own, and, having been writing in
> assembler for close to 40 years I think I write as fast, for the work I
> want to do as I would in C and get more out of it. A lot though is to do
> with feel, neither C nor C++ was designed for embedded systems, and I
> think the methods used to kludge it all together are ugly. I think
> Bitset and Bitclr are far more intuitive, for example, than any C
> alternative I've seen.
Just as you use assembler macros to make assembly clearer (such as using
names Bitset or Bitclr rather than the PIC's hopeless mnemonics), you
can make functions in C with whatever name suits your purposes if you
don't like "port |= 0x0001;" style.
And while C (and C++) were not originally designed for embedded use,
they have gradually changed over the years with embedded development in
mind. At the same time, modern microcontroller cpu designs have had C
(and C++) as their target. So cpus such as the Cortex M series were
designed to be programmed in C. If you have ever worked with bigger
processors, you will quickly see that it is assembly that feels like a
"kludge", not C. You will also find that the "microcontroller" parts,
such as manipulating bits in a register, take a smaller and smaller
proportion of the program.
>
> I guess I'm just as comfortable in assembler as anything else.
That's fair enough.
When I started my professional work around 20 years ago, most of my code
was in assembler with only a little C. I made a number of msp430
systems in assembler, before gcc was available. But while I
occasionally fiddle around in assembler, and find it very useful to
understand assembler on all the processors I use, it is rare that I
write more than a few lines of assembly now. I don't miss it.
>
> Al
>
> On 4/11/2014 7:14 PM, David Brown [email protected] [msp430] wrote:
>> I can't do anything about the DAC resolution (except suggest dithering -
>> the chip is fast enough if your rates are low). But I can point out
>> that the software tools for the Kinetis are free (all zero cost "free",
>> and mostly open source "free" as well), and jtag debuggers are cheap.
>>
>> Assembly on the Cortex M devices is not too hard - it has more in common
>> with the msp430 than the PIC. But of course virtually everyone uses C
>> or C++ - the compilers are excellent.
>>
>> But it is your call, of course.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>> On 04/11/14 09:00, Onestone [email protected] [msp430] wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks Dave. I have looked at the Kinetis parts, but I don't have time
>>> to learn a new Micro, and I know the PICs pretty well. I write in
>>> assembler, and have never used the ARM assembler, nor do I have tools
>>> for it, while I do have tools for the PIC and MPLAB is free. In addition
>>> the 6 bit DAC on the KL02P20 isn't enough for me.
>>>
>>> Al
>>>
>>> On 4/11/2014 6:10 PM, David Brown [email protected] [msp430] wrote:
>>>> This is off-topic (and nearly sacrilegious) in an msp430 group, but the
>>>> smallest microcontrollers I know of at the moment are the Freescale
>>>> Kinetis devices - they have 20 pin devices in less than 2x2 mm, with
>>>> Cortex M0+ cores (far nicer than PIC's !).
>>>>
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Posted by: David Brown <[email protected]>
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