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[on:]

Hi All,

I have a 8051 board (particularly 89V51RD2) board which is arduino hardware compatible.
I have developed an IDE compatible to Arduino IDE ported from Pinguino Python project.
Its still in development and not complete yet. The board is under second phase of prototyping.

I am planning to release it as an open hardware. I would like to know the following things.

How many board should i make initially to be safe and sane?

I dont have a proper IDE although i am developing it, SDCC + Text editor or some other 8051 IDE are the only options as of now.
Does it make it sensible to sell a board at this stage of sw development?

After launching the product, What if the hardware has a bug or error in it?.
How did arduino evolve given this situations, or didnt this situation arise at all!!.

I am in Germany , Where can I manufacture in case its small scale?
I know Inmojo.com where they  offer such service. It would be better to know better options.

Regarding the IDE, Is it better to port the arduino( processing) or continue with pinguino?
In this question what i want to know is, what advantage do i have porting to arduino (processing) compared to
Pinguino or http://gnome.eu.org/index.php/Gnoduino

How many people do you think would be interested in buying or participating in this project?
I assume there are many 8051 lovers in this forum .

A lot more questions to ask .....

-Krishna
 

[Reply #1 on:]

Since the Arduino is generally programmed in C/C++ and thus knowledge of the machine code is not a prerequisite, what advantages does the P89V51RD2 have over, for example, the Atmel  ATmega processors?

[Reply #2 on:]

It would appear to offer a similar form factor board, but for a 8051 based chip. with, what looks like more I/O. And by being I/O compatible with Arduino shields it has access to some already existing shields.

Because of a different hardware architecture in the 8051 and some folks who have experience with it, it offers a way to play with a device they may already be comfortable with, allong with access to some hardware (Arduino Shields) that make it easier to work with some I/O devices that are quite cost effective.

If someone came up with something like this based of a Z80 core I would definately bite... Hmm... Z80 core with RAM, FLASH and some I/O scheme...

[Reply #3 on:]

kf2qd,

Do you have a specific Z80 chip in mind?  Takes some reading/analysis to come up with pin mapping that makes sense to control the shield pins, or to add an external device to achieve compatibility.  The 89V51RD2 wasn't bad, needed to add an ADC chip to be able to bring analog in, and some shield pins needed 2 89V51RD2 pins to achieve the same (hence the DIP switch - close to connect pins for Arduino, open for no-shield and full 8051 function on the other set of pins).

I'm waiting on parts delivery now so Krishna's 2nd pass board can be assembled.

[Reply #4 on:]

If someone came up with something like this based of a Z80 core I would definately bite... Hmm... Z80 core with RAM, FLASH and some I/O scheme...

Looks like the Zilog Z8F3221 (40-pin PDIP, 32K FLASH, 2K SRAM, 29 GPIO, 3 Timers, 8x10-bit A/D inputs) would be a good choice for an Arduino-format Z80 except that it isn't 5V compatible (3.0 to 3.6V).