AVR-Chat

Cubloc, basicX, ZBasic - these are all interpreted p-code. Their libraries
include routines for the AVR on-chip devices (I2C, A/D, etc). I'm evaluating
ZBasic because it has a superb compiler, multitasking (preemptive),
Interrupt servers, and looking at the generated P-code, the compiler is very
smart.

I just started this - I measured 260,000 interations per second incrementing
a long while the Virtual machine was handling their default 1000 interrupts
per second for clock ticks. Seems pretty good. For sure, these VM based
chips are not for some industrial applications, but it's sure fast to
develop an application - esp. with the ZBasic similarity to Visual Basic and
that it does malloc/free() type of memory allocation for storage of strings.


Interesting, anyway. The ready-to-use ZX24 is cheap enough for a hobby
thing.

As to using the chips (ZX40) in an STK500, as long as you have the specific
crystal freq and one of the compatible HIGH SPEED, SPI EEPROMs, it should
work, I think.


-----Original Message-----
From: AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Mike Perks
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2006 12:57 AM
To: AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AVR-Chat] ZBasic

Ian Drennan wrote:

> stevech wrote:
> >
> > Though I'm an old fool C and ASM coder, I just gave "ZBasic" a try. 
> This is
> > a virtual machine running in an AtMega32 that interprets bytecodes 
> generated
> > by a compiler that's much like Visual Basic. Library supports ints, 
> longs,
> > singles and all the AVR I/O devices. Pretty neat. The bytecodes go 
> into a
> > 32K or bigger fast serial EEPROM.
> >
> > Runs pretty fast and has very high code density. Compiler and IDE 
> are good.
> > Takes 1-2 seconds to download a few hundred bytecodes and run; just 
> edit,
> > hit F5 and it's running. Serial port interface.
> >
> > You have to buy his chip or PC board (24 pin DIP).
> >
> > I don't work for this outfit:
> >
> > http://www.zbasic.net/forum/
> > http://www.zbasic.net
> >
>
> I was wondering if the ZX-40 could be plugged into my STK500 for
> development using the Z-Basic IDE. Anyone here tried this?


This is not the same kind of architecture as say Bascom for example. 
Your Basic program gets compiled into an intermediate language form 
which is downloaded to a SPI EEPROM. The virtual machine inside the 
ATmega32 then interprets the program. I have written an introduction to 
ZBasic system which explains its architecture and compares it to other 
systems. See my articles page: 
http://home.austin.rr.com/perks/micros/Articles/

The advantage of this system is that is it very quick for prototyping 
and supports a huge function library. Many people also use this chip 
(and its predecessor BasicX) in production systems as well. See my 
website for articles and projects for AVRs, ZBasic and BasicX.

Mike
http://home.austin.rr.com/perks/micros/



 
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