Lpc2000

> I have my eye on OKI chips:
> http://www.open-research.org.uk/ARMuC/index.cgi?ML67Qxxxx
> according to this web price range is $6-$10 and:
> http://www2.okisemi.com/us/docs/MCUTables-9.html
> ML67Q5003 seems perfect replacement for LPC2000 with it's 512K Flash
> 32K RAM 60Mhz ADC, I2C, UARTs etc.

Just to mention... ARM has "RVDK" toolchain that costs $6,000 and it can be
used for LPC2k family. IAR toolchain for LPC2k (limited edition) costs
approx. only half of RVDK price, which is much better offer if you ask me.

On the other hand, OKI has special deal with ARM so you can get "RVDK for
OKI" toolchain for only $2,000. Although "RVDK for OKI" is not compatible
with other MCU's like LPC, having this for your OKI MCU is great thing. OKI
is smarter than Philips, obviously.

Microchip will introduce dsPIC family soon (Q2 2004). As soon as they do
that I might return to Microchip since they offer free tools (IDE,
assembler, linker, debugger, etc.) including free RTOS scheduler (just
scheduler) from CMX and you can get C compiler for less than $300 from CCS.
Data Sheets are very comprehensive and great number of very useful
Application Notes exist. Also, there is great number of free DSP libraries
from Microchip including digital filters and other cool stuff. This is
probably the reason why I'm using Microchip MCU's for past 9 years. And
finally, Microchip is working on its own speech recognition solution for
dsPIC family. Very brave.

Philips is complete disaster. Support from Philips is equal to zero. Even
that ISP tool looks like kids wrote it. You are convicted to third party
expensive tools if you want to do any real job other than flashing LED's on
GPIO. GCC will generate up to XY% more code than IAR or ARM compilers so
using GCC might be real pain in the _ss for more demanding applications. Not
to mention lack of proper documentation. Migrating from Microchip to Philips
is very painful, at least it is for me. When compared to Microchip, dealing
with LPC2k is like doing time in jail. Maybe I'm just spoiled but dealing
with 240x160x16shades-of-gray graphic LCD, RS485 network, speech
recognition, IrDA, ultrasonic flow meter, PMR446 radio receiver and all of
that in a single package powered by two NiMH AAA's with fast charger and
fuel gauge gives me no time to deal with tools like GCC. I'm supposed to use
tools, not to spend my life studding them. Someone said something about
"code protection issue" on LPC2k!?

So, if you can avoid LPC2k...

Unfortunately, I can't  :-))

Or maybe I can? I don't know until I receive reply from OKI about IAP
feature. If it's possible to have IAP on OKI MCU's - "good night Philips"
and "hello OKI". I'm even thinking about loosing firmware upgrade feature
(through IrDA) on my design just to avoid LPC2k.

On the other hand I have meeting with Microchip people, here in Serbia, on
February 26th and if work on dsPIC is close to the end, Microchip is back in
the game. If they manage somehow to apply NanoWatt technology to dsPIC
family I think that there will be no doubt about proper selection of MCU for
future projects.

This is my personal opinion. I'm probably wrong about few things regarding
LPC2k but most of this is unfortunately true. Such a shame for such a good
product.

Regards,
Igor