Harry Winter
09-02-01, 05:53 PM
New interfaces for NMI SBC micros, besides RS232, Is there a market?
As I remember, many years ago a paper by Randy Dumse, published in FORTH Dimensions, Vol. 5, No. 2, page 25, with the title: "The R65F11 FORTH Chip," started New Micros Inc. This paper basically describes the NMI-Drop Point, which not only communicates by RS232, but is also powered by it. Low power consumption, compact code, easy programming, very small size; and all this together with the very low cost apparently generated the success of NMI.
Why new interfaces? Because this is the year 2001 and the "Powers in the industry" are working to phase-out the RS232, to be replaced by USB1/2, Firewire, and PC-Cardbus for portable computers. The trouble I have with these new interfaces is their "needless" complexity, in hardware as well as in software, which is a characteristic that is contrary to the "Spirit of Forth". The chief hardware architect for the "Palm PDAs" (now with Handspring), Karl Townsend, is well aware of this. In an article on the Visor, in Portable Design, August 2001, he is quoted as saying about their Springboard slot:
"Electrically, we wanted something that was simple to interface to, something that you didn't have to build an ASIC for at either end. The Springboard electrical interface is really just a buffered version of the Dragonball microprocessor's bus." [NMI--0332].
While the RS232 interface of the Palm computers is totally screwed-up by the Palm OS, the Springboard-slot actually has the "simplicity" promised by Townsend. This is the "new" interface I've been working on and it only needs three chips with a cost of one dollar and 80 cents. The circuit is shown and described on:
<http://www.msmisp.com/futuretest/NMI-Palm-Interf.htm> and the StarTrek Tricorder project description on <http://www.msmisp.com/futuretest> has been updated.
As I remember, many years ago a paper by Randy Dumse, published in FORTH Dimensions, Vol. 5, No. 2, page 25, with the title: "The R65F11 FORTH Chip," started New Micros Inc. This paper basically describes the NMI-Drop Point, which not only communicates by RS232, but is also powered by it. Low power consumption, compact code, easy programming, very small size; and all this together with the very low cost apparently generated the success of NMI.
Why new interfaces? Because this is the year 2001 and the "Powers in the industry" are working to phase-out the RS232, to be replaced by USB1/2, Firewire, and PC-Cardbus for portable computers. The trouble I have with these new interfaces is their "needless" complexity, in hardware as well as in software, which is a characteristic that is contrary to the "Spirit of Forth". The chief hardware architect for the "Palm PDAs" (now with Handspring), Karl Townsend, is well aware of this. In an article on the Visor, in Portable Design, August 2001, he is quoted as saying about their Springboard slot:
"Electrically, we wanted something that was simple to interface to, something that you didn't have to build an ASIC for at either end. The Springboard electrical interface is really just a buffered version of the Dragonball microprocessor's bus." [NMI--0332].
While the RS232 interface of the Palm computers is totally screwed-up by the Palm OS, the Springboard-slot actually has the "simplicity" promised by Townsend. This is the "new" interface I've been working on and it only needs three chips with a cost of one dollar and 80 cents. The circuit is shown and described on:
<http://www.msmisp.com/futuretest/NMI-Palm-Interf.htm> and the StarTrek Tricorder project description on <http://www.msmisp.com/futuretest> has been updated.