Subject: 8051s !!!

From: [email-masked] (Tim Deagan)
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 91 13:35:15 CDT

I'm suprised that there aren't scads of 8051 developers
working on a PGlove box.  I am!  The 8051 beats the 68HC11
for a couple of reasons in my book.
1) Lots of PD assemblers, dissassemblers, simulators
2) Reasonably priced pseudo-ICEs (approx $200)
3) Cheese-whiz Assembly code (includes such commands
     as ANL and ORL, gotta love it!)

Anyways the point is that it's a great hombrew platform.  
I've built a bunch of MIDI boxes at home with nothing but
a scope.  They also have a 8032AH with on-board BASIC, who could
ask for more?

I am trying as fast as I can to whip up a MIDI box for the glove,
I want to map my MIDI drum machine to the joystick space as a start.
Hires mode makes LOTS of stuff possible, especially if you include
one of those NINTENDO twister board things (power-pad?) that you
can walk around on and use as an input device.

Realistically it's probably easier to run the glove into a PC with
a MIDI card and develop SW there, but maybe not.  Have any of you
homebrewers looked at C&T's PC on a chip with SUPERSTATE?  LOTS and
LOTS of potential for low cost-high result development.

Forget the 68HC11, the 8051 is the industry workhorse for good reason.
Sorry if I'm stepping on any toes, but discourse is the soul of reason,
or something.

--Tim
[email-masked]

---

From: Jay A. Carlson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 91 16:57:16 CDT

> for a couple of reasons in my book.

I'm not going to get into a my-controller-is-better-than-your-
controller thread, as the glove-list is not the place to do it.
However, I don't want the list to be mislead too far by either the
Intel or the Motorola partisans.

> 1) Lots of PD assemblers, dissassemblers, simulators

Motorola distributes a freeware assembler for the HC11 (and in fact,
their entire 8-bit processor line) with source.  It's nothing fancy,
but it gets the job done.  If you need a macro assembler, I can
heartily recommend Matt Dillon's freeware DASM.  I've used it for
several projects targeted to the HC11 and the 6502.

The PD MS-DOS program SIM68 does a good job of simulating an HC11.  I
don't have much use for it as I use an Amiga for all my development
stuff (and find that I don't *usually* make mistakes that are easily
solved with a simulator. :-)

> 2) Reasonably priced pseudo-ICEs (approx $200)

The HC11 was designed with cheap development tools in mind.
Motorola's 68HC11 EVB will do pseudo-ICE of the single chip modes for
$88.11.  Expanded mode pseudo-ICE can be done with Motorola's EVM, or
third-party products in the $300 range.  Real ICE's are simpler due to
a number of other features in the chip.

>      as ANL and ORL, gotta love it!)

No comment.

> a scope.  They also have a 8032AH with on-board BASIC, who could

How 'bout a freeware BASIC that can run on any of the processor line?

Motorola distributes a multitasking real-time executive (MCX) for the
HC11, incidentally.  Is there anything like this available for the
Intel controllers?

Just off the top of my head, here are a few reasons to prefer the
HC11: fully static CMOS design, more orthagonal instruction set,
cleaner bus, not Intel.  :-/

> can walk around on and use as an input device.

Just mapping the glove to continuous controllers would interest a lot
of my musician friends.  There are so many possibilities of things to
do with the glove that it's hard to come up with a single really
concrete ones.  Lemme know what you get working.

> Sorry if I'm stepping on any toes, but discourse is the soul of reason,

Or something. :-)

> [email-masked]

  // Jay Carlson
\X/  [email-masked]

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