Microchip Curiosity Board

[shantanu@india]

Microchip is foraying into ARM powered, BLE enabled IOT modules to compete with the Chinese.But their prices are too high to be competitive!!

https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/10/27/wbz451-curiosity-board-features-microchip-pic32cx-bz2-ble-and-zigbee-3-0-microcontroller/

[John Lawton]

No WiFi so not a direct competitor to the ESP32. One comment points out that there is no inventory (earliest part has 416 estimated to ship on 03-May-2023) so maybe not the best to design into a product just yet

A curiosity indeed.

[top204]

That board and microcontroller indicate why i did not make a Positron compiler for the original PIC32 devices. Even when they first brought them out, I could see they were a "stop gap" until microchip bought a 32-bit processor that most people use. i.e. An ARM, instead of the MIPS used in the current PIC32 devices. I still say that is the only reason they bought Atmel, for their ARM microcontroller repository.

Now that Microchip are putting their stamp on the ARM microcontrollers, I will look into writing a Positron32 for the ARM types, as I did for the PIC24 and dsPIC33 types, because they should remain more familiar to users with their peripherals etc...

As soon as I can afford a few PIC32 ARM microcontrollers and a programmer etc, I will get into them, and use the Positron16 source code as the shell of the Positron32. Because of the lack of fragmented RAM and bankless and pageless operations in the 16-bit microcontrollers, and a real RAM stack, it should be more straightforward to make the changes for it to work with the 32-bit microcontrollers.

Watch this space. :-)

[John Lawton]

Wow, that's very interesting news Les.

[charliecoutas]

I'm with John, wow, very interesting. I'm sure that a few of us could help with financing some parts for you.

Charlie

[John Lawton]

If uChip actually have any

[trastikata]

I am pretty certain we can help with the hardware. 

Les, any preferences to which MCUs you'd like to start with and which programmer/debugger will suit you best?

[top204]

Many thanks, but it will take me a while to do some research on the devices, because, up until this afternoon, I did not know microchip were using ARM for their new PIC32 devices. :-) I also have a project to get up adn running that I had to put on hold, before I look into the months of 24/7 work for a compiler.

We are also moving home in a couple of weeks, so my head is in a spin even more than it normally is after my injury, now.

[Mapo]

Great, can't wait
I have always been interested in ARM processors,
Les never stops and you always raise the bar of difficulties,
you are a phenomenon and an example to follow, keep it up.

[John Lawton]

I've taken a quick look and there appear to be two current ranges, the AVR SAM range and the PIC32 devices which are a mixture of ARM and MIPS32 devices.

See here for the ATSAM range: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/microcontrollers-and-microprocessors/32-bit-mcus/sam-32-bit-mcus

and for the PIC32 range: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/microcontrollers-and-microprocessors/32-bit-mcus/pic32-32-bit-mcus

Quite a mixture here of MIPS32 and ARM Cortex, mostly the former.

There are also 'legacy devices of several types: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/microcontrollers-and-microprocessors/32-bit-mcus/legacy-products

Click on each of the coloured ranges boxes to get more information including development boards for that family.

[John Lawton]

If you look at https://www.microchip.com/en-us/parametric-search.html/985 and search for "Cortex" you get 35 PIC32 Cortex M0+ and M23 devices

[John Drew]

Les,
When you're sorted I'm willing to toss in some dollars to help with hardware.
John

[basiclover]

I'm also ready to help

[John Lawton]

Me 2

[top204]

Thanks everyone.

John.... Thanks for the link. They look really nice, especially because they also do DIP devices, so prototyping on a real device is not a pain in the backside. :-)

I think to start, it will be the M0 types, because they are more standard. Then move up to the more complex Mx series ARM devices once I understand their architecture enough. This is so I can get the very best out of them, and not just create a translator or assembler code "chucked" together as others tend to do. :-)

Now I am excited as well. :-) It is something I have waited for, for quite a few years now, and knew Microchip jumped into the 32-bit market prematurely with their original PIC32 (MIPS) devices, as they have done with some of their devices many times before. So I held back from creating a compiler for a "dead in the water" 32-bit microcontroller. i.e. The original PIC32 devices.

It's really going to confuse PIC32 device users when they have a mix of, very different, types with the same prefixes. :-O

[John Lawton]

Here is Microchip's 32bit product brochure:
https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/30009904V.pdf
Which clarifies the different types available and lists development boards

[top204]

Blimey..... Talk about confusion!!!

They really are a screwed up company now, and they have far too many people working for them that do not have any idea in the "real world", and they have no model to work from, or standards. They are, essentially, a company that buys companies, kills off what it does not want, then sells what it thinks its lawyers and salesmen would like.

Utterly dreadful and no enthusiasm for their devices at all now. So sad. :-(

[basiclover]

LES, just paypaled you

[John Lawton]

It seems that they bolted together the AVR and PIC companies and got a bit of a dog's dinner. Perhaps the two camps fight internally as well

[SCV]

As soon as I can afford a few PIC32 ARM microcontrollers and a programmer etc, I will get into them

Hi Les, sounds great.
I am happy to help out where I can. I have an Asix Forte programmer I could donate?