Highly Anticipated 32-bit "Due" due When?

I've been reading up on the 3X chips, they have some really nice features (CAN, LIN, EMAC, DAC, more memory etc) but I'm wondering if they are too complicated for an Arduino.


Rob

Hi Rob,

IF the software library support keeps all the simpler existing Arduino commands, I don't think it's a problem.

IF the documentation has a nice subset for beginners, even better.

IF the Price Is Right then having features/capabilities that many don't use is not a problem.

Consider a Mega today, and the many, many contributed libraries. That has a lot more complexity than most people use. And few use a lot of it at once..

What's your opinion??

All valid points, just because there is complexity that doesn't mean the average person has to deal with it. In fact that's what the Arduino idea is founded on.

It will be interesting to see how some things go, for example explaining to beginners how some analogWrite() commands produce a square wave and others an analogue voltage. This is where bad choices for function names eventually bites you in the arse. And if you differentiate between a "normal" analogue output and a DAC output what do you call the new functions, realAnalogWrite() :slight_smile:

There is the occasional push for "advanced" documentation that doesn't gloss over the hard bits, maybe this will be an opportunity for a bright young lad.

One thing using a 3X will do is squash the constant "generate a random number" threads, it has a TRNG.


Rob

For what its worth I received some SAM3X samples today - 144pin. Production is supposed to be July, though Digikey is saying it can ship May24th. The big advantage to the Atmel low cost ARM is integrated Ethernet, USB OTG, ADC12bits and 96Kb ram - and wide Vcc range.

Yep it looks like a nice chip alright, not a world beater but a good step up for an embedded board like the Arduino.


Rob

Shoes dropping: http://www.atmel.com/about/news/release.aspx?reference=tcm:26-41493

(not a lot of info there, though...)

can run up to 96MHz.

So it can't be the 3X version then, it's only good for 84MHz. The 3Us (as they originally stated would be used) will run up to 96MHz.

But then the other day on Twitter

The Arduino Due runs Arduino code natively at 84MHz

I still have my 3U design waiting in the wings :slight_smile:


Rob

Arduino’s latest development boards based on Atmel AVR® UC3, megaAVR® and SAM3X8 ARM® processor-based MCUs

UC3s as well? what's the world coming to?


Rob

A case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing... For Atmel to announce before Arduino that the 32-bit Due will be based on the SAM3 is perplexing. This scoop should have broken on the arduino.cc homepage first - a fresh new photo of the Due should replace the dated picture of the Uno.

I suspect the 32-bit Due will be released soon with the SAM3 product line. I'm sure this is not a coincidence. Atmel needs all the publicity it can get. So can Arduino for that matter, after failing to meet it's original before-the-end-of-2011 commitment.

For Atmel to announce before Arduino that the 32-bit Due will be based on the SAM3 is perplexing.

So far the Due "release" has been a cock up on the information front, now we have conflicting statements and Maker Faire has been and gone with still no news.


Rob

Hmmm, I got into arduino as a less painful way (vs using a propeller or basic) to investigate possible solutions for a server "airflow/temperature/hardware-state" monitoring and control platform.

Actually, the hardest part of doing useful things with an MCU isn't the features (or their lack) offerred by the MCU. The hardest part about
doing useful things in embedded systems-land is knowing electronics-design, and implementation 'well'.

For example: Doing PWM, won't matter a wink if one doesn't have their transistor "merit badge" hanging on the wall, and then of course
we (as in me and my fellow web devs turned fearless electronics explorers) wouldn't be bothering with all this MCU stuff if we couldn't monitor
the fan speeds in realtime.

Welcome to pulse count and estimation hell.... So then we discovered frequency to voltage ICs, yay!

Then PWM came back to bite us in the arse.... The tachometer signal from those expensive 12k rpm fans? Um yeah
the PWM as amplified through the n-channel mosfets causes the power delivery to the fan motor to look like little slices of
quantum physical reality... Um, even the tach signal looks like some chopped up quasi synthetic square-wave wanna be...

It's time for the "Signal conditioning" merit badge... RC equations, oh joy...

So what I'm trying to say here is, I could literally care less when the Due comes out, frankly I'll probably order a maple mini and
use it to test 72 Mhz goodness, and when the Due finally lumbers out backed by the full faith and example arsenal of the arduino project,
then yeah, I'll spring for one.

'But I ain't waitin' with bated breath... There's real work to be done... One of my new fascinations/temporary obsessions is the use of Attiny85/45 chips
as "PWM cores", "external sensor management nodes" and other cool program cycle-saving roles in an electronic circuit.
My arduino nano can be made to program them and mouser sells the 85/45 for under a buck a piece.

Goodbye 555, hello superpowers.

So if/when the Due is finally released then 'yay', until then, it's time to earn my "dB-speak" merit badge.

Ah the joys of hardware implementations, the LAMP stack holds no terrors for those who have braved the icy waters of embedded systems work.

Carry on!

Carry on!

I plan to, because I have no idea what you just said :slight_smile:


Rob

Graynomad:

Carry on!

I plan to, because I have no idea what you just said :slight_smile:


Rob

I think I understand Node-O 8)
And I understand Graynomad to. :astonished:
Does that make me special? ]:smiley:

Greeting from sunny Belgium (for once)
Jantje

Hmm
http://asf.atmel.com/docs/latest/search.html?device=sam3x
gives an Ardunio Due/X 8)

  • maybe the X is for remove :astonished:

It's still very overDUE. But like the pyramids it will be ready when it's ready.

It's getting close, see here

http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=959252#959252


Rob

I started a new thread with this info, but I'll post it here too:

Massimo Banzi's Maker Faire talk, including info about Due (and why it's late.)

http://fora.tv/2012/05/19/Massimo_Banzi ... of_Arduino
They say "beta" now, and are giving away 100 beta boards to worthy people.

westfw:
I started a new thread with this info, but I'll post it here too:

Massimo Banzi's Maker Faire talk, including info about Due (and why it's late.)

http://fora.tv/2012/05/19/Massimo_Banzi ... of_Arduino
They say "beta" now, and are giving away 100 beta boards to worthy people.

Thanks for the link. I did learn one thing from that Massimo's talk that was a big question to me and that was if the Due was going to be using the same IDE that all the other 8 bit arduino use. The answer I heard (I think) is that the Due will have it's own independent IDE, which I think is the correct way to go.

Lefty

Why can't the Due and the AVR-based Arduino's use the same IDE, as has been done with the ChipKit Uno32?

Interesting - Massimo commenting on Arduino-compatible clones, saying Leonardo Bootloader totally re-done due to HID taking over the IDE.