ANN: SwiftX for MSP430
Elizabeth D. Rather
cross-development system for the Texas Instruments MSP430. This product
was developed with the assistance of TI and its first customer.
The product comes with TI's FET430P140 evaluation kit, which includes an
adapter cable connecting the JTAG port on the MSP430 to a parallel
(printer) port on the PC. This provides a high-speed XTL whose usage is
similar to the Motorola BDM used on the 68332 and other parts. We are
also exploring other target boards.
The implementation is, like most other SwiftXs, a subroutine-threaded
system with direct code substitution for some primitives and an
optimizing compiler for SwiftX Pro users.
The MSP430 devices constitute a family of exceptionally low-power,
16-bit RISC microcontrollers with an advanced architecture and rich
peripheral set.
The MSP430 consumes less than 400 uA in active mode operating at 1 MHz
in a typical 3-V system and can wake up from a <2-uA standby mode to
fully-synchronized operation in less than 6 us. These exceptionally low
current requirements, combined with the fast wake-up time, enable a user
to build a system with minimum current consumption and maximum battery
life.
Additionally, the MSP430x1xx family has an abundant mix of peripherals
and memory sizes enabling true system-on-a-chip designs. The peripherals
include a 12-bit A/D, slope A/D, multiple timers (some with
capture/compare registers and PWM output capability), on-chip clock
generation, H/W multiplier, USART(s), Watchdog Timer, GPIO, and others.
At this time, SwiftX only provides direct support for a timer using a
32.767 kHz watch crystal, although we expect to add additional drivers
shortly.
The processor's instruction set is well-matched to Forth, and the system
delivers excellent performance, including a very efficient SwiftOS
multitasker.
SwiftX uses the JTAG interface on the chip to provide fully interactive
testing and development. Like other SwiftXs, the IDE running on a
Windows-based PC provides the appearance of a disk and keyboard
connected directly to an interactive Forth running on the target,
although in fact the compiler, assembler, and other tools run on the PC,
monitoring and controlling execution on the target. You can
interactively examine all memory and registers, and execute any words in
the target. If multiple tasks are running, the task controlling the
target end of the XTL can run without disturbing other tasks.
The basic target kernel is under 5K bytes.
The price for SwiftX is $450, and for SwiftX Pro $1,645. For a
comparison of the features of SwiftX and SwiftX Pro, see
http://www.forth.com/Content/Products/SwiftX/SwXNewVer.htm. To order,
please contact sa...@forth.com.
Cheers,
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth D. Rather (US & Canada) 800-55-FORTH
FORTH Inc. +1 310-491-3356
5155 W. Rosecrans Ave. #1018 Fax: +1 310-978-9454
Hawthorne, CA 90250
http://www.forth.com
"Forth-based products and Services for real-time
applications since 1973."
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Paul E. Bennett
era...@forth.com "Elizabeth D. Rather" writes:
> We are happy to announce the release of our popular SwiftX
> cross-development system for the Texas Instruments MSP430. This product
> was developed with the assistance of TI and its first customer.
[%X]
> The processor's instruction set is well-matched to Forth, and the system
> delivers excellent performance, including a very efficient SwiftOS
> multitasker.
Well done all at Forth Inc. I knew the chip was going to be a good one
for Forth.
--
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Paul E. Bennett ....................<email://p...@amleth.demon.co.uk>
Forth based HIDECS Consultancy .....<http://www.amleth.demon.co.uk/>
Mob: +44 (0)7811-639972 .........NOW AVAILABLE:- HIDECS COURSE......
Tel: +44 (0)1235-814586 .... see http://www.feabhas.com for details.
Going Forth Safely ..... EBA. www.electric-boat-association.org.uk..
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