Zilog LIVES! Cortex-M3 no less...

[richardman]

Who knew, they are still around and onto the Cortex-M bandwagon. What's the value proposition though?! 

https://www.zilog.com/index.php?option=com_product&task=product&businessLine=1&id=186&parent_id=186&Itemid=16040

[ez24]

richardman

Any more deals for forum members, or did you get too burned last time    A lot of members were pretty hard on you

How are things going with your development kits, software, C tutorial, and debugger (that bugger)

I hope you do not have bad memories over what happened.

[richardman]

Hee hee, it's OK. Gotta have tough skin to survive here ;-) It's all good though. From the recommendations here, we did drop the price of the non-commercial use licenses for both the compiler and the debugger, and reading all those "woe - so difficult to get into Cortex programming" it just gives us more resolve to improve our JumpStart API. If you use Windows and the STM32F0 and STM32F4 series, and don't mind Windows, there is no better way to get started than with our tools.

As for discount and products, as a matter of fact, we just released on wifi2go module - a STM32F411+TI CC3100 wifi. OEM Production ready but also prototype friendly in the carrier board version. With that, we are running promo again. If you go to our web site:



and click on the blue link on top left, it will take you to a page with discount code 

[ez24]

Not to bring up old wounds but

On this page
https://imagecraft.com/index.php?option=com_opencart&Itemid=148&route=product/product&path=59&product_id=50

is this statement:

The JumpStarter C compiler includes an easy-to-use, fast Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and a friendly debugger (separate license required for the debugger). The JumpStart API allows you to get started writing applications without getting bogged down in the tedium of system and peripheral setup.

I believe you added  " (separate license required for the debugger) " since the last time.  It still is confusing because this page talks about what comes with the kit.  I think you should put at the end of the page "Options"  and talk about it there.

But anyway, since I missed out last year,  how much is the debugger with the education kit ?

(I believe it used to be free (accidentally) then went to $50)  Is it still $50 with the non-commercial $99 education kit?

[richardman]

Because it is not an option per se. The debugger IS built-in :-) And in fact, is fully functional during demo period, and has limited functionality after demo period. OK, we may be splitting hair here, but I do believe the wording is clearer now. Probably will never be clear enough for all EEVBlog forumers 

And yes, the non-commercial use license for the debugger is $50.

[hans]

I've went through the trouble of downloading the datasheet.

"Preliminary" on the front page is a very nice way of saying it. The spelling mistakes and downright incorrect references is very noticeable. The JPEG on those block diagrams is wow.

The only pro I can see for that part is 32-pin 0.65mm package & 5V operation. The part does look very simplistic and maybe even reminiscent of a 8-bit parts in terms of complexity of the registers (not many options). In that view, other vendors are many miles ahead. I am not sure about pricing and availability from Digikey/Farnell/Mouser, which is probably key for success.

[obiwanjacobi]

So this Zilog processor, ain't it something...

[nctnico]

The only pro I can see for that part is 32-pin 0.65mm package & 5V operation. The part does look very simplistic and maybe even reminiscent of a 8-bit parts in terms of complexity of the registers (not many options). In that view, other vendors are many miles ahead.

I'm not aware of (m)any 5V ARM controllers. Maybe the device is intended as a bridge the gap between 8 bit 5V devices and 32 bit 3.3V (or lower) devices. IMHO this could be an interesting move because 5V interoperability has been mentioned as a problem for using ARM controllers to upgrade legacy designs on this forum several times.

[dannyf]

has limited functionality after demo period.

Alternatively, you can just use st-link - it is a nucleo board right? - and have unlimited functionality all the time.

Or flash it to jlink (with the utilities from st) and move on.

[hans]

The only pro I can see for that part is 32-pin 0.65mm package & 5V operation. The part does look very simplistic and maybe even reminiscent of a 8-bit parts in terms of complexity of the registers (not many options). In that view, other vendors are many miles ahead.

I'm not aware of (m)any 5V ARM controllers. Maybe the device is intended as a bridge the gap between 8 bit 5V devices and 32 bit 3.3V (or lower) devices. IMHO this could be an interesting move because 5V interoperability has been mentioned as a problem for using ARM controllers to upgrade legacy designs on this forum several times.

Probably cortex m3 at 5V operation is very rare if not only on the market.
For legacy 5V designs it's a plus, and the scarcity of digital peripherals (both amount and depth) is probably not a problem. It is very likely the chip will be dropped into a legacy design tailored to chips of those days, i.e. a similar mount (or even less) of digital options.

My comment on "others are ahead" was more aimed at what the cortex m0 competition has to offer in terms of memory & peripherals.
NXP Kinetis E
Atmel SAM C (+CAN bus)
Cypress PSoC 4200M (+CAN bus)
Microchip dsPIC33EV series (+CAN bus, but not ARM and only 16-bit)

These all feature more than double the amount of digital peripherals (like USART/SPI/I2C), have 12-bit ADCs (not as fast though), and much more memory.
I listed dsPIC33EV because at 70MIPS is probably quite comparable in terms of performance to the other Cortex m0's, if limited to 8 or 16-bit operations.

After looking at Zilog's documentation I think Zilog has some catching up to do. There is just 1 datasheet with not much explanation of the peripherals, no application notes, no example projects, no CMSIS libraries to speak of (it has a startup script, non-configurable SystemInit() and that's it - 1 example blinky that is bitbanging away), etc.