PSIM-1 Information Update
2004-01-24 by bdhornback
Hello everyone. For those that are curious, the heart (or actually brain) of the PSIM-1 is the BasicAtomPro24-M by Basic Micro. It is pin compatible with the Parallax Basic Stamp but is based on the Hitachi H8 3664 Processor instead of a PIC. The Hitachi H8 is the same family of processors found in the Sony PlayStation! It is one VERY powerful yet tiny computer. More information about the Atom Pro can be found at the Basic Micro Web site: http://www.BasicMicro.com It is programmed in a version a MBasic which is very similar to Parallax's own PBasic. So, most Basic Stamp code will also run on the Atom Pro (with a few exceptions and minor changes). One major difference is the execution speed. The Basic Stamp 2 processes at most 4,000 instructions per seconds versus the Atom Pro's 100,000 instructions per second! If you are interested in this module, I highly recommend downloading the following documentation: Basic Atom Pro Manual http://www.basicmicro.com/downloads/docs/atompro.pdf Parallax Basic Stamp Manual http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/prod/stamps/BasicStampMan.pdf Please keep in mind minor changes to BASIC Stamp code need to be made to run on the Atom Pro, but the Atom Pro also contains a LOT of additional commands and capabilities the Stamp does not. However, there are a lot of examples of Stamp code available out on the Internet whereas the Atom Pro is fairly new and not quite as widely used yet. Sames goes for MBasic which is primarily used for programming PICs. MOST MBasic code will also run on the Atom Pro. Anyway, both of these manuals make for excellent reading. I'll be making some example code available in the next few days so you can see just how easy it is to program the PSIM-1. By the way, the Programming software is freely available at the Basic Micro Web site and can be found here: http://www.basicmicro.com/downloads/software/BMAtomPro.zip Feel free to download it and start getting a feel for how you'll interface your new PSIM-1. Best regards, Brice D. Hornback http://www.SynthModules.com