AVR-Chat

On Mon, Feb 20, 2006 at 06:34:15AM -0000, anding_eunding wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I am new to AVR system as a hobbiest.  May I ask a couple of 
> recommendations for two things I need?
> 
> 1. Low cost combined JTAG programmer and debugger. I found one at 
> the microcontrollershop.  Looks good (apart from the odd shape).  
> Any others worth looking at?
> http://microcontrollershop.com/product_info.php?
> cPath=110_53&products_id=584&osCsid=0a3815b60abe1abbe0c75306dc043273

I have been most pleased with my ECROS Ice Cube for $40. Spend the extra
$5 to get the 12" ribbon cable and cable adapter as the Ice Cube is
small but doesn't always fit inside what you are working on.
http://www.ecrostech.com/Products/AvrJtagIce/Intro.htm

The Ice Cube is slower than my USB JTAGICE mk-II but works on my low
power design where the mkII does not.

> 2. C Compiler.  Budget is in the range $0-$200, which gives me GCC 
> and CodeVision (sorry Imagecraft just didn't look like it was for 
> me).  Cheaper is better but my time is worth something too and I'm 
> prepared to pay for value.  I noticed that now AVR Studio has GCC 
> integrated, potentially that's very helpful I would guess.  Could I 
> get some opinions on the relative merits of GCC+AVR Studio and 
> CodeVision? (If I could understand the practical differences I could 
> decide if it's worth the price difference to me)

The AVR is blessed in that GCC for AVR is very very good. The AVR has
separate code address space and separate data address space. GCC doesn't
know very well how to handle that situation. Some will never see the
issue as everything is defaulted to sane behavior. There are macros and
functions to wrap data which is only in FLASH. Other compilers have
special variable types so the compiler automagically knows to use the
correct instructions for access. Its not really major, but would be nice
to have.

I have not used the latest AVR Studio. My AVR project is currently in
production so mostly these days I only use the source code to answer
obscure questions about its function. That means I'm not going to change
anything in my environment.

-- 
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@HiWAAY.net
========================================================================
Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.