XMOS chips and the FPGA Arcade Replay

[skolman]

XMOS shows $3 quad-core 400MIPS microcontroller

edit by eliyahu: the contents of this thread originated in the massive FPGA arcade replay thread. the XMOS-related discussion started with the post above. for additional context, you may wish to revisit the original thread.

[Hattig]

XMOS shows $3 quad-core 400MIPS microcontroller

Maybe more suited for the AmigaOne X2000 thread!

Or, upon reading the blurb, a 3D printer thread.

[skolman]

@Hattig

Such DSP can encode/decode MP3, etc.

[freqmax]

A small piece of the FPGA can do the same without any extra chips..

[bbond007]

A small piece of the FPGA can do the same without any extra chips..

Maybe it could be made software/driver compatible with MAS Player...

[JimDrew]

XMOS shows $3 quad-core 400MIPS microcontroller

Wow... that's a game changer.  4 cores that run independently would make things like emulating console machines pretty simple - one core for video, one core for audio, one core for I/O and house keeping, and one core for CPU emulation.  $3 at 100 piece means under $2.00 at 10000 pieces.  That's quite amazing.  I am going to look into these.

::edit::  These parts are OTP (one time programmable).  So, they would not be very well suited for anything that would need (or you would want to have) updates for.

[freqmax]

Will be the XMOS 4xCore 400 MIPS at 3 USD/piece beat ARM in performance/price and unit/price departments..?

[ferrellsl]

@JimDrew

At such low prices why would anyone be worried about it?  Toss it out and buy a new one when you need an update.

[Hattig]

Will be the XMOS 4xCore 400 MIPS at 3 USD/piece beat ARM in performance/price and unit/price departments..?

This product is going up against things like Atmel AVR, ARM Cortex M0-M4 and the like, rather than low-end ARM SoCs. It's meant to be embedded within a product and just do what it's programmed to do, forever - much like the USB converter chip on the FPGAArcade - it converts complex USB keyboard/mouse (and maybe more) to simple serial signals the FPGA can work with simply.

[SamuraiCrow]

The XMOS chip doesn't address external memory, it just has I/O ports.  That makes it nearly worthless for emulation purposes.

[JimDrew]

@JimDrew

At such low prices why would anyone be worried about it?  Toss it out and buy a new one when you need an update.

Well, for things like the FPGA Arcade (a daughter board perhaps?), these would but useless because we need to have the ability to update firmware.   Development with these would be a nightmare when you're throwing them out every time you want to test your code as you are writing it.  They apparently have sort of simulation software to ease the development, but there is no substitute to throwing the part into a board and testing it.  Neat chip though for one-time uses - like a USB<>serial, SCSI<>IDE, etc. only interfaces, or a commercial product that will never change.

[freqmax]

Other comparable chips has rewritable memory. No need to go back..

[ferrellsl]

Well, for things like the FPGA Arcade (a daughter board perhaps?), these would but useless because we need to have the ability to update firmware.   Development with these would be a nightmare when you're throwing them out every time you want to test your code as you are writing it.  They apparently have sort of simulation software to ease the development, but there is no substitute to throwing the part into a board and testing it.  Neat chip though for one-time uses - like a USB<>serial, SCSI<>IDE, etc. only interfaces, or a commercial product that will never change.

Or maybe just go with a socket.  Toss out the old chip, insert the new one and apply the update.....

[arnljot]

I knot this isn't the XMOS thread... But still, yes to socket, and sell the new chip as an upgrade, $6 per pre programmed chip...

[freqmax]

This is the thread for stuff that as a minimum can be reprogrammed at will....