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Hi,
I'm looking at 2 cheap development boards. One has a LPC1768 Cortex-M3 processor, and the other has a LPC2368 TDMI-S processor. I dunno which to get, and maybe could use some suggestions.
I'd like to use open source tools (sorry Keil), and maybe end up running FreeRTOS or something. USB might be fun to play with, if I can get the right software somewhere, and I noticed that the LPC1768 board has a host mode connector that the LPC2368 one doesn't. I'm a bit vague about what I want to do, really.
Any clues as to which core offers the most advantages for a noob experimenter?
Boz.
Hi Bradford,
Thanks for the welcome suggestion.
Well in the case of the 8051, I definitely would resort to using the Keil toolset regardless, as frankly there is little open source alternative.
I may yet change my judgement, but as far as I am led to believe, 'evaluating' Keil's professional ARM tools may not be absolutely necessary. I can't afford such great tools at this point, and the open source alternatives may prove to suit my modest, unprofessional requirements for at least the time being.
Golly, I'm really torn between ARM processor alternatives. The TDMI-S board I was looking at is much cheaper, but the Cortex-M3 sounds like it's a lot easier to program. I don't know what to think!
Which "TDMI-S board" is that?
There are some very cheap Cortex-M3 boards about - under $50.
Hi Andy,
I appreciate your always helpful assistance.
Okay, this is what I want to replace. It's an 8051 based web control board that I run ADs' uIP stack on.
www.futurlec.com.au/Web_Control_Board.jsp
Ther reason that sucks is because you can get a cheaper ARM based alternative like this:
www.futurlec.com.au/ARM2368_Controller.jsp
The SD card socket and USB functions are a big plus, but I'm not sure TDMI-S is what I'm looking for. The next step up was to a Cortex-M3, but this is a bit too pricey for my shoestring budget:
www.futurlec.com.au/LPC1768_Controller.jsp
A cheaper board with the same NXP LPC1768 controller would be ideal, and it would only need Ethernet, USB and maybe an SD socket to be very useful.
Thanks for the interest Andy. I'll be happy to hear any suggestions you might have.
The LPC17xx chips are not more expensive than the LPC23xx chips. And at least the variants I have looked at have been pin-comptabile. A manufacturer of LPC23xx boards should be able to sell the boards with LPC17xx mounted instead.
The biggest difference may be that the LPC17xx chips don't have the battery-backed RAM. The 2KB of RAM is reduced to a few cells in the RTC.
I recently migrated an application from LPC24xx to LPC17xx. Easy, fast, many peripheral remained the same.
"The next step up was to a Cortex-M3, but this is a bit too pricey for my shoestring budget"
That board has a colour graphic LCD with touch screen - so it's hardly surprising that it's much more expensive, is it?!
I suggest you look at the Stellaris boards from TI (formerly Luminary Micro), or STM32 from Olimex - they have some very low-cost boards.
And there certainly are people providing low-cost boards using the NXP LPC17xx chips...
I think that includes the MBed - mentioned above?