Instructions Compatibility between MEGA and GIGA

Official Hardware Mega GIGA R1 WiFi
1

Hy, Happy new year to everybody

I just got the new GIGA R1 Board
and want to start using it
instead of my MEGA 2560 Boards.

My question about the GIGA R1 is about the
instruction-compatibility to the MEGA-Board.

Is it fully Software-compatible (from MEGA to GIGA) so that all sketches designed for MEGA
are running directly on the GIGA?

Thanks

2

in a short answer No. it will depend on the sketch, libraries or shields you used.

3

The answer to your question is no

Normal Arduino functions such as digitalWrite(), digitalRead() etc will work OK

However, the two boards have different processors so any sketch that uses low level instructions, such as accessing chip registers directly will not work.

A more important consideration is that the Giga is a 3.3V device whilst the Mega is a 5V device so any inputs to the board must take this into account to avoid damaging it

4

Thanks for dirct answers.
The Hardware-Incompatibility (5V/3,3V) is clear for me.

For the Instruction-Compatibility:
Where from can I get informations which instructions are
really direct compatible?

Otherwise:
When I try to use compile a sketch for The GIGA,
does the compiler generate error messages about incompatible instructions?

Is there already a "workaround"-list for incompatible instructions or how can I get informations in that way?

5

It might do, or it might not.

And even if there are no errors maybe the library or code just does not work for some reason.

You do need to test each library.

Some libraries may in their documentation say which Microcontrollers are supported by the library, but often they do not.

6

it's really a very different architecture so as long as the code (yours or from libraries) you use is at an abstract layer (away from direct hardware manipulation) or is aware of the GIGA's specifics then you'll be fine.

you really need to test to know..

1 Like
7

OK, thanks for the clear statement.
even when I'm not so happy with it.
But clear, Arduino does not build CPUs itself,
they only use them and try to integrate them
in their work environment.

For the HW Problem (3,3V<>5V) I've had an idea:
Creating an Level-Shifter-Adapter board,
(there are ICs available for that function).
Or is it always available somewhere?
That would additional be a protection
for the valuable GIGA-board.