Arduino ATXMEGA with Duemilanove Pinout

Hi All,

is there already an Arduino hardare with ATXMEGA which I can buy with Duemilanove Pinout ?
For example an ATXMEGA32A4 with Duemilanove Pinout.

I'm wondering why there is not much XMEGA content in this forum ?

Thanks,
Way

Probably because of the super huge errata list?
Or the lack of interest in complicating the software or the team simply doesnt still have lots of code for Xmega to copy to make a super duper core, like they made with the atmega....

There were also the initial availability problems. Xmegas were announced, but you couldn't actually buy them anywhere.
And the "not 5v" issues.

I have a partially complete xmega arduino design. I'm not quite sure what it is good for, other than running twice as fast as a normal arduino (which may be a problem in itself. The Maple and chipKit designs went to 4-layer PCBs...)

Probably because of the super huge errata list?
Or the lack of interest in complicating the software or the team simply doesnt still have lots of code for Xmega to copy to make a super duper core, like they made with the atmega....

The errata list shrink form Rev to Rev.
You need a hardware in order to write software for it.

There were also the initial availability problems. Xmegas were announced, but you couldn't actually buy them anywhere.
And the "not 5v" issues.

I have a partially complete xmega arduino design. I'm not quite sure what it is good for, other than running twice as fast as a normal arduino (which may be a problem in itself. The Maple and chipKit designs went to 4-layer PCBs...)

I'm asking in 2011 where you can get XMEGA's everywhere.

A lot of Sensors on existing shields only work with 3.3 V and also for example

  • XBee or
  • w5100 Ethernet Shield
  • or GSM Shield
    do not work with 5V but with 3.3V so you need additional efforts to get 3.3V on shields at the moment.

It is not just twice as fast.It is also DMA, Event System, several UARTS, I2C and SPI interfaces.

So if somebody have a Xmega Arduino variant I wil buy it.

Way

A lot of Sensors on existing shields only work with 3.3 V and also for example

Yes, but it is "undetermined" how to implement a CPU board with 3.3V IO, where to supply how much power, and etc. You surely don't want to convert your 3V CPU to 5V IOs and back again, but you don't want to fry your CPU by connecting a 5V shield either. And putting out 3V on the 5V power pin probably isn't correct...

It is not just twice as fast.It is also DMA, Event System, several UARTS, I2C and SPI interfaces.

Good luck fitting all that within the Arduino abstraction layer and "simplified" libraries.

What would an Xmega-based Arduino board offer beyond what an xMega Xplained board offers?

At this point, I'm sorta hoping that the chipKit (pic32 based) boards explore some of these issues.
They have more dedicated support...

If you want to acces all that you need some bare metal programming and that means no Arduino silly things, so just use AvrStudio and an Xplained board.

bare metal programming ... means no Arduino silly things

Although I said almost the same thing, I have to disagree with you when you put it like this.
It's one of the fundamental flaws of the eternal "low level vs high level programming" arguments that just because some aspects of a problem need low-level attention, you must abandon all your high-level tools. Nonsense. It's perfectly possible (and reasonable) to have all sorts of "Arduino silly things" in a sketch while also having "bare metal programming" in the places that actually need it...

Yes I know that, but he wants to do low level programming that Arduino style will simply not deliver so why need to use the Arduino IDE?

so why need to use the Arduino IDE?

Because of personal choice? Because it's already familiar to the user? Because it's open source and multi-platform? Because nothing about the Arduino IDE prevents one from using as low level a control as the g++ compiler allows? Or perhaps just because! :wink:

If the Microchip® PIC32 32-bit MIPS processor (PIC32MX320F128) can be made to work with a Arduino IDE, why would not a ATxmega work? ( http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Catalog.cfm?NavPath=2,892&Cat=18 )

At this point, I'm sorta hoping that the chipKit (pic32 based) boards explore some of these issues.
They have more dedicated support...

What they claim is: "Pin-out compatibility with many existing Arduino™ shields that can operate at 3.3V"

This is what I want. All existing shields that can operate at 3.3V I would like to reuse with XMEGA.

Yes I know that, but he wants to do low level programming that Arduino style will simply not deliver so why need to use the Arduino IDE?

Yes I could also use other programming languages like for example Bascom-AVR (which already supports DMA, EventSystem ...... for XMEGA) until Arduino software is ready for that but I could use the Arduino hardware plattform including existing and future shields from the beginning.

Way