SparkFun Forums

[Ennio]

Good Morning,
I write this e-mail because I have to develop a new serie of machines and I would like
to change the uP.
At the moment I use the ATMEGA1284P, it is usefull in a lot of applications, but I'm not sure that it is ok for my future products.
I visited the websites of many manufacturer of uP and I saw that the ARM uP are very powerfull an could be the perfect choise for my future projects.
In our future machines we will need the following things:

-) Frequency clock of the micro: minimum 60 MHz, so every instruction will be faster than now

-) Flash memory to store program: minimum 256 kB, probably it is better 512 kB or more to deal future products

-) SRAM: an high value could be ok

-) Timer: minimum 4/6 with high resolution 16bit or 32 bit

-) SPI hardware: 4

-) PWM: 8 channels with high resolution 16bit or 32bit

-) ADC: 8 or 12 channels - resolution 10bit or 12bit

-) DAC: 2 could be ok

-) RTC: it is better to have it

-) USB port: YES - I would like to update the software of our machine by USB or to download data stored in the EEPROM of the Micro or in other external memory by USB

-) I would like to connect our machine with tablet or smart phone via bluetooth or ZigBee or wireless internet, but I don't have any idea to do this thing, probably you could advise a micro that it is suitable also for this application.

-) SD Card: YES - I would like to update the software of our machine by SD card or to download data stored in the EEPROM of the Micro or in other external memory by SD card

-) Wave generator: YES

I saw many different ARM uP that could be ok for our future projects, but it is very difficult to understand what is the best and which company will give you the best support and help you to have the best time to market.

Could you please advise some microprocessor that have the features above? Could you please also advise me regarding the Development Enviroment, now I use IAR for AVR?
I have few time to do this choise and to develop our new products, please advise me as soon as possible.
Thanks!

Let me know!

Best regards

[viskr]

The current part I like is in the LPC43xx family from NXP, dual core, 200 MHz

Won't have 4 SPIs, not sure I've seen that anywhere, but usually you just use 1 SPI and multiple SSEL

Not sure you'll get all 8 PWMs, but 4 and probably 6 can be done in that part

I haven't seen 2 DACs on any micro, that just means I haven't looked hard enough yet, usually I just use an external SPI DAC, they come in SC70s (small) and cheap

USB is there, though not too many let you drag and drop application, some mBED setups do that, but I find it more of a pain that way.

Not sure what a wave generator you are thinking about is (a DAC can do that)

For now wireless is a separate module, unless you want to look at Nordic stuff, though with those you don't get nearly as big a CPU.

IAR works for ARM as well.