[HH] Propeller P8X32A microcontroller

[Tom Metro]

I was browsing the Twitter feeds that Circuit Cellar follows and ran
across the link below in the Parallax Semiconductor feed. It a $25
evaluation board for an 8-core microcontroller. That sounds impressive.
Why haven't we heard more about this?

With only 64KB EEPROM you won't be running Linux on this (not to mention
that it doesn't say what architecture it is base on; I'm assuming it
isn't something common like MIPS or ARM) - it's definitely just a
microcontroller, but it can do up to "up to 20 MIPS per core." Not sure
what applications it is being marketed for.

 -Tom


P8X32A QuickStart Board
http://www.parallaxsemiconductor.com/quickstart

As an open-source reference design, the P8X32A QuickStart board provides
basic Propeller circuitry. ... As a project board, the QuickStart is
fully expandable and provides unimpeded access to all I/O pins through
an expansion header but includes some button inputs and LEDs to
demonstrate programming. With USB power and a selection of QuickStart
Project examples, it's also the fastest way to get up and running.

How to get a P8X32A QuickStart Board ... People who are not developing
high-volume / large-scale commercial products may buy a QuickStart for
$25.00.
http://www.parallax.com/tabid/514/ProductID/748/Default.aspx

Features
# Eight resistive touch buttons
# Eight buffered LEDs
# Buffered USB to serial converter with USB bus power
# Up to 30 free I/O pins available through an accessory soc

Parallax P8X32A Propeller Microcontroller
The Propeller microcontroller, U1, is an 8-core low power
microcontroller with 32 KB SRAM and up to 20 MIPS per core. By
partitioning separate tasks into separate cores, the Propeller can load
programs and features and reallocate resources on the fly, without the
overhead of an operating system. Features that often require dedicated
hardware can be defined in software and run in parallel. When running at
a total of 160 MIPS, the power consumption is usually less than 80 mA.
For more information, refer to the Propeller P8X32A datasheet.