Lpc2000

--- In lpc2000@yahoogroups.com, "Eric Engler" <englere.geo@y...> 
wrote:
> I didn't see you mention Ethernet.  The AT91SAM7X256 should be out
> by now and that looks great - you might want to look at it.

I mentioned that in my original post.  Yes it's 256K/64K, however 
it's 2x the cost of the 64K/16K, and about 40% more expensive than 
the LPC2148 512K/40K.  The LPC2148 is the same price as the 
128K/32K, so with that comparison I can get more memory with the 
LPC.  However I don't know why the LPC doesn't offer 64KB (or 72KB 
as their logic goes), as that would be a major plus for them.  40KB 
vs 64KB is a larger difference than 128K vs 512K flash, at least in 
some circumstances.

Ethernet is really of no use to me in my short-term plans, an it's 
fairly easy to add in as an external component later on anyway.
 
> There's an open source downloader for the Philips devices, but 
> nothing like that for Atmel. As I understand it there's no linux
> downloader for SAM-BA, and no Windows command-line downloader.

Good point.  Thanks for mentioning that, however I'd imagine (hope!) 
that there will be an open source one soon.
 
> Philips does not support programming flash over USB at all, Atmel 
> does (via their Windows GUI program).

I didn't realize this either.  How fast does the Philips boot-loader 
download at?  If 115.2 then it's not that big a deal, as even 
downloading 512KB can be done in less than 45 seconds.  Usually 
you'll have much less code than that anyway.  As you mention you can 
always create your own bootloader to run over USB.  I imagine that 
someone will make one and open source it pretty soon anyway.

How useful is the 10-bit DAC?  That's too low for MP3 playback, 
isn't it?

Right now the only major pluses for Atmel is the ability to have 
64KB on-chip RAM, and the fact that all peripherals are DMA'd, 
including UART communications.  Philips has much more flash, 128-bit 
memory access (noticeably faster from what I hear), is cheaper, has 
13 more GPIO lines, has a DAC, has 32-bit timers, and is 5MHz faster.

Considering how all of my microcontroller development over the past 
2 years has been with a whopping 12KB of ram, I'm sure that 32KB is 
enough as long as you are smart with your memory usage.  I don't 
plan on doing huge RS232 transfers (for which the DMA would be 
useful on the SAM7S), especially since there is USB available.  Add 
in the fact that I can add external "slow-speed" SRAM to either 
device, and it looks like the LPC2148 is winning the race.

Although I'd still appreciate any comments that anyone else has to 
make.

Thanks!