Re: Computing Editorial (please read)

[Michael Joosten <joost@c-lab.de>]

Quite late, but a whole sh*full of work...

Lee Hart wrote:
> 

> Michael Joosten wrote:
> > Lee, I hope I did not... most of the MCU designs for hobbyists
> > nowadays probably use a serial port to communicate with a small
> > monitor program, or just use some parallel PC port to program
> > their internal flash ROMs
> 
> My first concern is that there aren't any MCUs designed for beginning
> hobbyists. The ones that do exist assume you are already a knowledgeable
> engineer or trained technician, already have a PC, and are already
> familiar with computer programming languages.

At least the PC, yes. Though... I was a little surprised that some
colleges/universities in US still seem to use Intel SDK-85 or such for
some courses - at least they have some of the course material on-line.

 But,
> how do the students of today get started?
> 

A few years ago a colleague (univ.) held a practical course based on
some 'experimentation kit' supposedly from MIT where they had to
assemble and design a small CPU with TTL MSI and an EPROM for the
microprogram. Not sure if that's still there.

On the other hand, we also have project groups who build controller
software for mobile robots, and of course here you use some PC-based SDK
kit, and mostly C for the 8051 variants (16bit 80C166 or such).

> > it should be quite trivial to add 6 seven-segment displays (or
> > standard LCD display) and a small keyboard to arrive at a small
> > standalone system, like the KIM 1, SDK-85, Microprofessor-1, etc.
> 
> Is it? Let's pick some small microcontroller board, like the Parallax
> BASIC Stamp 2 for $49. A 4x4 matrix keypad will be about $10, and can be
> interfaced using 8 of the 16 I/O lines. But a little 16x2 LCD display
> will add another $49. We could use six 7-segment LEDs and a 74LS145
> decoder; that would cost about $10 but now we've used up all our I/O
> lines.

Oh, come on, the BASIC Stamp is probably the worst choice for that, I'd
assume. But right, the additional costs do not make that feasible
anymore, if you likely already have 'some' PC.


> > To go as 'low' as just having eight switches with some counters to
> > increment the addresses and the like was ... a bit too early for me,
> > though such a beast also appeared in Elektor in '77, IIRC, based on
> > NatSemi's SC/MP. Interesting, but a little too expensive as
> > birthday/christmas present for a 14 year old.
> 
> The "Elf" I started on was certainly under $100 then, and wouldn't cost
> even $50 now. The earliest ones had toggle switches and LEDs for I/O;
> the later more advanced ones had hex keypads and a video output for a TV
> set. Wasn't the KIM-1 about $150? I think all of the single-board
> self-contained trainers were in the $50-$300 range (and that was for the
> complete system; nothing else needed except possibly a TV set or
> cassette tape recorder).

Add exchange rate, customs, taxes, importer's profit. The KIM-1 was sold
for - I think - about 550-600 DM in '78. That was plenty! Former
colleagues reported that daily stuff often costs as much in dollars than
it did cost in dmarks. Shopping as a German in US did only make sense
for jeans...

> 
> > Well, a PC has become a commodity device - so it does not really count
> > in this calculation.
> 
> Only among certain classes of people. What percentage of homes do you
> think have PCs? Even in the USA, it is less than 1/4. And normal "old
> fashioned" serial and parallel ports are gradually being eliminated from
> new PCs.

Unfortunately. This USB-only/'legacy free' stuff does not only worry us,
it's even a nice discussion topic for Itanium server users in the
computing centers ("serial console? What, you do not have a serial
console in your shining new Itanium server? ^&%*&")
> 

> 
> I'm sure they used to exist for the 805x series. But, I fear they are
> all gone now.

Some ten thousand years ago you were supposed to make your own knives
from flint stone - some thouaand years later you had to buy/exchange
them from a bronze or then iron smith or dealer, but still had to know
how to sharpen them. Well, that's progress. Some general knowledge gets
'mainly' lost in daily life and only kept by those who are interested in
it - like us... There is only so much time in life...


-- 
Michael Joosten, SBS C-LAB, joost@c-lab.de
Fuerstenallee 11, 33094 Paderborn, Germany
Phone: +49 5251 606127, Fax: +49 5251 606065
C-LAB is a cooperation of University Paderborn & SIEMENS