Re: My 2 cents on bootstrap loaders.

[Eddie Matejowsky <e.matejowsky@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>The network is a shift register.  If one uses a synchronous serial chip, one
>can entirely control all bits in the stream and masquerade as another F21. 
>If not, one can use one of the pins of the parallel port of the PC and bit
>bang. 
Sounds fine, to me - if we see it in the production chip. If it is a just a
shift register 2 or 3 bits out of the printer port will work fine.

>If you come to think about it, you can plug a "serial card" your PC that
>consists of an actual F21, that will drive the network for the other one
>:-) 
Yes, I said there were other ways.
>This is exactly what the analog coprocessor is all about, right :-)
>
I'm not sure, you could be right about that (or not) I don't know what it
can do. I haven't (obviously) studied the f21 for quite a while. The C11
has 7 counter timer pins, I've been know to use all of them on occasion.
While you could be right (I don't have time to check right now) I think the
timer interrupt and an i/o port could do the same but the analog processor
won't.
>> While I don't think the f21 is intended as a micro-controller I can see
>> it's not too much of a jump to make it into one.
>
>I don't see why not call it that way.  It is definitely micro, and it
>definitely can control.
>
Why don't they call all micro-processors micro-controllers? I don't know
the correct definition. To me the F21 needs to much around it to make it
go, to call it that. Microcontrollers usually have a lot more on chip
peripherals but I'm happy to substitute software for silicon given we've
got the mips to do it. I think the chip count would have to come down -
maybe a bit of ram on board and an external flash rom would do. Micros that
can run in single chip mode are pretty cheap, I don't think we'll compete
while we're using 20 bit external memories. Maybe we'll never match the low
end of the micro market on price, but you never know.
Eddie,
Edward Matejowsky - Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia)
personal home page at http://www.ozemail.com.au/~eddiema/index.html