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On 12/29/2010 1:52 PM, Ivan Baggett wrote:
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 10:40 PM, KHMan wrote:
On 12/29/2010 11:36 AM, Javier Guerra Giraldez wrote:

it turns out that PIC32 is a low-end MIPS core with a boatload of
PIC-style on-chip peripherals and no PIC core anywhere.

still, it doesn't have any external bus interface (no, GPIO pins
doesn't count. i've done that on smaller PICs, but it makes external
memory look like storage devices, not RAM); so any port would be
limited to what inner memory can hold.

[snip]

Yes, that's what I like about - no external address bus.  Reduced circuit
complexity, lower cost, higher reliability, and fewer part sourcing
issues.  Way back in old times, a decent BASIC interpreter could run in
64K of RAM + ROM.  I don't want to program in BASIC, but a language that
calls itself small and embeddable (i.e. Lua) should really be that.  There
are folks who are running Lua (or eLua) on single-chip ARM systems.  PIC32
with it's MIPS architecture should be just as capable as that.  What's the
hold-up?

Looking at the current MPLAB 8.60 install... it has the PIC32 gcc-based C compiler as an option in the install package, plus a PIC32 simulator. So it is set up quite conveniently; someone can port eLua without needing any initial hardware (though hardware would be nice for those who prefer to develop with hardware.)

Ooooh, tempting...

[ARM's lead is hard to chase, AVR32 has hardly been mentioned, though IIRC the max internal RAM is less]

--
Cheers,
Kein-Hong Man (esq.)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia