Re: Stolen designs

John Larkin wrote:
On 12 Jun 2006 19:38:38 +0200, David <david@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

John Larkin wrote:
On Sun, 11 Jun 2006 09:53:21 -0700, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Most of my products contain an MC68332 uP, and we're still designing
new gadgets around it. It's a lovely instruction set, which I always
program in assembly. I keep checking with OnSemi
Oops, Freescale.

John


Freescale (or Motorola before that) have wanted to EOL the 68332 for years - it can't be made in their more modern lines, because the process is to old. They tried to persuade customers to move to the MPC5xx line (Power PC core, improved TPU), arranging prices to help, but the 68332 is as popular as ever.

They told me they were still out soliciting new business for the 332.
Why don't they just move it to a newer process? It's not that complex
by modern standards, and they wouldn't have to touch the microcode.


The 68332 is an old design - moving it to a smaller process means a great deal of re-work (compare it to moving your 68k assembly to a PPC cpu). The ColdFire cores are all done as high-level synthesisable cores which can be quickly implemented in different processes (such as if you'd coded in C) - in fact, there are far more ColdFire cores produced in ASICs than general purpose microcontrollers.

In a way, the MCF523x *is* the 68332 moved to a modern process.

If you ever feel you want to move on, go for the ColdFire MCF523x line. You get a lot more for your money (eTPU, Ethernet, 150 MHz, etc.), and the ColdFire core is based on the same ISA as the 68332. Even programming in assembly, there will not be many changes needed to your code.

Yes (grumble, snarl) I guess we'll have to do that one of these days.
We could use a little more speed now and then.


The 150 MHz 5234 will give you 10 to 20 times the speed, which is a reasonable step up.

John

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