Category: XMOS

FT800 XMOS

Ok did a couple more test. Learned the hard way about the swap.. Basically on the FT800 you have to swap out the new screen for the old one. So if you plan to update just a portion… you might have to rewrite the entire screen. Well this is what it seems like right now. Perhaps im doing it wrong.

Im doing this from scratch and without using any functions from the FTDI code, only the definitions.

But so far its pretty good i guess… now to play with TOUCH and actual IMAGES!

Code for above (well MAIN code)

int main ( void )
{
 init_ft800();

 BeginBITMAP();
 FT800_STR(10,10,0xFFFFFF,31,"Jason Lopez");
 FT800_STR(10,60,0x00FF00,24,"AtomSoft.wordpress.com");
 FT800_STR(10,86,0x0000FF,22,"XMOS startKIT 1V2");
 FT800_STR(10,104,0xFF0000,22,"FT800Q Display IC");
 FinishBITMAP();

 while(1);
 return 0;
}

FULL CODE HERE

1

Finally

Could it be?!?!

image

After some modifications to my board and finally got it working. Ill post details in the morning

image

image

Running on StartKIT from XMOS!

0

2.8″ TFT on XMOS

2.8Touch Shield

Ok ive had this TFT from RadioShack for a while now and never really use it but i think this is a good time to test it out. Im using the startKIT from XMOS as the controller.

This LCD is originally a 5v product. To make it a 3.3v item simply remove the 3.3v regulator and jump the input and output pins like I have done here. Notice that in case i want to use it on 5v again i left the IC (vreg) taped to a area on the pcb as to reuse it 🙂

mod

Using the code attached/linked below you can control your LCD as well. This code was converted from the original code from the LCD Info link below. There is no TOUCH portion as of yet. I got tired and decided to leave it for another day. I will be using an IC to convert touches. The IC i will be using is the ADS7843. So expect code for that one of these days.

Here are some images as proof of code working.

tft2

tft1

Code:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/os75aapqt0e7aoq/28RSLCD.zip

LCD Info:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/2.8”_TFT_Touch_Shield_V1.0

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XK-1A Development Kit

It has been a few years since i talked about XMOS and i finally decided to order one. I ordered the XK-1A Development Kit.
xk1a-xtag2-sm_0

The XK-1A is a low cost development board for exploring multicore micro controller designs based on the XS1-L8-64 multicore microcontroller. Multiple XK-1A boards can be linked together in a chain and two I/O expansion areas are provided for connecting additional components to the XK-1A. Design files for example add-on boards are available, including an SD card reader, a Bluetooth adapter and a Control Card.

The XK-1A is available as a kit with an xTAG-2 debug adapter that can be connected to the XK-1A to provide a JTAG interface to the board from a PC, or as an individual board if you want to chain multiple XK-1As together (one xTAG-2 can be used for several boards).

Features

Single XS1-L8-64 device
400 MIPS
8 cores
64KB RAM
8KB OTP memory
128KB SPI FLASH
Four user-configurable LEDs and two push-button switches
Two 20-way XSYS connectors for xTAG-2 debug adapter and additional XK-1As
Two 16-way IDC headers for connecting additional components
24 I/O user expansion
The XK-1A can be powered directly from the xTAG-2 connector or from an external 5V power supply.

That was taken from the XMOS site. I have no EXACT projects in mind for it but for a 8 core MCU it will be so fun to tinker with.

I do plan on getting some bare MCUs and making my own development pcbs. I had to cut out this image from the PDF of the XK-1A for me to print clearly. Its the schematics.
xk-1a

I should have this in this week (Wednesday) or at least i hope Fedex works on time 🙂

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XMOS no more…

I decided to forget about XMOS. I decided to go with ARM. ARM seems to be a nice budget choice. Especially in these bad times. A ARM IC can cost as low as $3. XMOS minimum is like $7. Also the ARM programmer can be made or bought for under $20. (parallel) The XMOS programmer is $50 minimum.

As you can see the price is important. ARM speeds are great but harder to implement parallel type code. But the price is main thing right now. So ARM here i come..

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XMOS

Ok enough is enough. I have spent tons of money on little things. I want a XMOS !!! Instead of me saving my money to buy it, i end up spending it on little things which im sure i dont really need.

I plan on saving as much as possible and ordering a XMOS XK-1 and some bare XMOS uCs. This time im serious. So far i have $0 Saved lol.. its funny right? yeah…

Anyway i will save up $120-$130 for the XK-1 and some XMOS uCs and parts for it. Lets see how long it takes.

https://www.xmos.com/products/development-kits/xk-1-development-kit

https://www.xmos.com/products/development-kits/xk-
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XMOS Venture

I started my venture into XMOS which is a fairly new company (2005) which develops Event-driven processors. These are some great products if your looking for speed and ram.

These are no where near a PIC/AVR micro in comparison. A PIC32 Can hit about 80Mhz with 1.5DMIPs/Mhz so thats about 120MIPs … And some AVR32 can hit 210 DMIPS @ 150 MHz which is great!!!!

With a single core XMOS XS1-L1 you can achieve 400MIPs of power. Even tho the Max I/O for a pin is 100mhz… Now the neat thing is XMOS is a multi-threading type MCU/CPU… Where i can have upto 8 processes running at the same time. The issue or drawback is that they share the power. Which isnt bad… If i only use 4 threads then its 100mhz per thread… so its like running 4 PIC micros at 100MIPS each and they can all communicate with each other with no extra hardware cost and minimal software intervention.

I cant really comment on AVR32 micros because i never really used AVRs…. You can also use all 8 threads if need be.. They would have about 50 MIPS each which is still great for the price of  a PIC18F MCU…Let me get back to the drawbacks…

There are no on-board peripherals such as UART, ADC,SPI etc… But the cool thing is most can be done in code. So you get what you want on a MCU… dont need SPI …. dont add it heh simple as that…

Now your probably thinking what if i need more threads …. they have a nice 2 Core MCU… XS1-G2. This puppy has 2 cores which allow up to 16 threads and the speed is also doubled to 800 MIPS, YES 800… so if you use all 16 threads ten you technically have 16 PICs running at 50MIPS… if you use 4 on each core then you have 8 PICs running at 100MIPS each…

Need more… greedy!!! But they can take care of you with a  4 Core XS1-G4.. as you may have guessed by now 32 Threads @ yes!!!! 1600MIPS …. You get the picture right!?!

You want to know what crazy about this whole thing… You can connect ICs together here with a XLINK which is a bridge for them. So you can call functions from 1 IC on another from any core…. Love them so far dont cha!!

Heh your gonna go nuts after this tho…. they also have a XMP-64 which is 64 Core dev tool… This bad boy has 16 * 4Core XMOS chips on it… It can run up to 512 Threads! 4MB RAM!! 25.6 GIPS!!! YES GIPS!!! aka 25.6 Billion Instructions Per Second….

Thats equivalent to : 0.0000000000390625 per cycle… or 39 Picoseconds…. but remember.. its equivalent not actual. Since all threads are running simultaneously.

Anyway. I hope you enjoyed this LONG post…. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment or correct me heh…

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