How do I go about picking an architecture ? My first thoughts suggested Cortex M3 but the more I look into it the less sure I am.
Obviously I don't to go to the trouble of learning a new technology only to find that I've made a bad processor choice (ie nearly end of line). I've spent many hours looking at many websites and have yet to find any high-level stuff on choosing my first ARM device.
If there's one thing wrong with ARM its the almost infinite number of devices
I'm an embedded developer wanting to undertake my first ARM project, so I'm completely new to the ARM architecture. I want a low power device with serial, USB and some ADC channels.
About manufacturers giving out full source with nice licenses: "nobody said that you said that, so let's move on."
Actually, you did with: "sounds like you are unclaiming what you just claimed. what do you think this guy/gal was claiming when s/he said:
'For commercial use, you should have full access to the source code, and a license that allows you to run the code on _any_ processor, even if different manufacturer or non-ARM architecture.'
no answer is required, :)."
You explicitly wanted me to provide examples of something I did not claim, so yes: You indirectly said that I said that, by implication. Please remember what you write, and please argue based on existing claims instead of sometimes inventing claims from me, or sometimes forgetting your own claims.
"the reasons given in support of such an argument, needing full source code access on a commercial package, security (?), performance and stability, are bogus at best."
You think it is a bogus claim that without the source to a library, you can't fix any bug and have to hope that the library owner will quickly come and help out? What do you do if you have a support contract with the customer to fix bugs within timespan x, while you have a totally unknown timespan for the library owner to _maybe_ help out with library bugs?
What do you call it when the library owner says there isn't anything wrong with the library? What do you do when the library owner _maybe_ 6 months later releases a new - and corrected - library without still admitting to there ever having been anything wrong? A non-issue? You tell your customers that any problems with the product they have seen wasn't your fault and that the 6 month response time wasn't so bad?
Don't know what _you_ mean about security. I am talking about business risks. Should have been cleaar many posts ago.
Don't know what _you_ mean about performance and stability. This is the first post in this thread where _I_ use the words "performance" and "stability" so your argument that my argument is bogus is obviously bogus. It's once more that F in reading.
The issue here is that even for a small product, you can quickly end up having invested $1 million or more. And the value of the investment directly relates to the trust your customers puts in you and into your product. A large number of companies have a very high percentage of the sales to repeat customers, which means that the trust of these customers is everything.