[time-nuts] Frequency Dividers

Didier Juges didier at cox.net
Wed Aug 9 23:27:39 EDT 2006


Hi Said,

Thanks for the info, I did check the Philips (and Sparkfun) web site(s) 
and I must admit the ARM chip is cheap and has impressive 
specifications. With the GNU tools, I know it will work and it will fit 
my homebrewer's budget :-) I used to consider $99 for a development kit 
cheap, but $29 beats it with good margin.

At that price, I don't see how I could pass on a chance to evaluate it, 
if not for the fact that I have so much 8051 code (and a Franklin 
compiler, wich is similar to the Keil)

I agree that the Silab chips are somewhat expensive, at least for high 
volume consumer stuff. However, I do not consider 64k of Flash memory 
(and several kB of RAM for most parts) as small for an 8 bit micro, but 
there again, if you are considering applications that require large 
buffers, such as data compression, you probably would not want to use an 
8 bit chip anyhow. Also, on the 8051, addressing RAM above the customary 
128 bytes of DATA space (XDATA) takes a lot longer. On the 8051,  RAM is 
not always equal :-)

Thanks again.

Didier KO4BB

SAIDJACK at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 8/8/2006 19:51:06 Pacific Daylight Time, didier at cox.net  
> writes:
>  
> Hi Didier,
>  
> I used their 8051F310 in many devices, it's a great little chip :)
>  
> There are two issues that made me change to the Philips LPC2000 Arms  though: 
> the SIL parts are somewhat expensive, and they don't have much memory,  
> especially SRAM. For the Arm's, there are GNU compilers (no need to pay Keil),  and 
> a bunch of great open-source RTOS'.
>  
> Also, the Arm's are extremely low-power, and run up to a true 60Mips at 32  
> bits. Plus they have lot's of memory and code compression (Thumb mode).
>  
> Then there is Olimex and Sparkfun, they sell these Arms very cheap. Last  
> time I checked, SIL wanted to have $99 for an 8051F310 eval kit - the Arm starts  
> at $29.99 at Sparkfun - no need to buy any software development tools for the 
>  Arm either.
>  
> Philips has parts with up to 512KB internal Flash and at least 64Kbytes  SRAM 
> I believe, some of them pin-compatible to each other.
>  
> On the PLL: Philips typically does very well on their PLL's - jitter  is very 
> low. Certainly I've seen some of their PLL's in the ps range, which  would 
> put the 1PPS output at probably better than 1E-11, 1s accuracy. I can  measure 
> the unit I have, and let you know later...
>  
> bye,
> Said
>  
>  
>  




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