After playing with a few different conceptions of connecting a display to the propeller I'm wondering what others think. Memory performance vs free pins vs glue logic? It seems to be a giant case of tradeoffs and while I'm perfectly happy with the prototype board I'm currently using (although I REALLY wish I had 4qpi flash chips onboard)
If you really want the most free pins it makes sense to me to run the display in 8 bit mode and use a couple QPI chips. 12-14 pins used. If you want the fastest memory transfers *the current design* then use all the pins. I've gone back and forth on the next iteration of hardware I want to build and I'm hoping to find some consensus on an acceptable design. There was quite a bit of interest in the old design except for the no free pins part. I've had quite a bit of luck doing surface mount although BGA is on the limit of my process as I have yet to try one. If I can find a consensus I could seeing a small run int the future.
I know in the propeller world we are used to having our cake and eating it too but lets try to be realistic here. So.
MINIMUM number of free pins? 4? 8? 12? 20? (this is going to be the biggest fight)
HOW much additional memory? 256k? 1m? 256m?
How fast do you need to access the memory?
Is the memory dedicated to the display or do you plan on using it for program data?
Price point?
Through hole for self assembly or pre-assembled SMT?
I think the most important part is to keep it noob-friendly. Some way to go from the simple toggle tutorial to the first "hello world".
If you really want the most free pins it makes sense to me to run the display in 8 bit mode and use a couple QPI chips. 12-14 pins used. If you want the fastest memory transfers *the current design* then use all the pins. I've gone back and forth on the next iteration of hardware I want to build and I'm hoping to find some consensus on an acceptable design. There was quite a bit of interest in the old design except for the no free pins part. I've had quite a bit of luck doing surface mount although BGA is on the limit of my process as I have yet to try one. If I can find a consensus I could seeing a small run int the future.
I know in the propeller world we are used to having our cake and eating it too but lets try to be realistic here. So.
MINIMUM number of free pins? 4? 8? 12? 20? (this is going to be the biggest fight)
HOW much additional memory? 256k? 1m? 256m?
How fast do you need to access the memory?
Is the memory dedicated to the display or do you plan on using it for program data?
Price point?
Through hole for self assembly or pre-assembled SMT?
I think the most important part is to keep it noob-friendly. Some way to go from the simple toggle tutorial to the first "hello world".