Is the new STM32 Cortex-M4 in the LeafLabs technical roadmap? Yeah, I know- the chip gets released next year, and then the tools need to catch up.
"ST says all future STM32 Cortex-M4 and -M0 based MCUs will remain fully pin- and software compatible with each other and the STM32 Cortex-M3 devices."
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4211061/STMicroelectronics-Cortex-MCUs
gbulmer
Moderator
The press release says "The core will be used in new high-performance variants of STM32 products to be sampled in 2011."
Sampling in 2011? When will there be production?
The Xtra-density STM32F's and STM32F-2's were announced as in sampling around end of Q1/early Q2 this year (I think), and aren't generally available yet.
By mid 2011, I hope to have learned VHDL and be making much more amazing things with Oak :-)
Freescale and NXP are claiming Cortex-M4 much sooner than ST Micro too.
But, we'll see how it all pans out.
thimble of worms: VHDL over Verilog?
gbulmer
Moderator
The people I know, who can help up up the learning curve faster, use VHDL.
One friend says Verilog was much better, but AFAIK Verilog is expensive (out of my price range, and hence maybe beyond the folks I work with) and VHDL is free of charge.
I'll happily try either if there is good documentation and some help.
poslathian
LeafLabs
Here a little related info:
Originally there were two languages related to ASIC development and circuit design, verilog and vhdl. Verilog was the SIMULATION language and VHDL was the SYNTHESIS language. Eventually, someone verilog became synthesizable as well, thus making VHDL somewhat obsolete. However, the large institutionalized developers stuck with it for...inertial reasons (or so Ive been told). VHDL is super common in aerospace and military related work. Verilog is more common in consumer work - at Analog Devices we used verilog.
Later on variants and extensions on verilog became available, system verilog and bluespec (system verilog+haskell+other stuff), and these have expensive compilers. However the sugar-free verilog compilers are still free (as in gratis, not as in libre) from the major FPGA manufacturers. There are some libre packages for simulating verilog, such as icarus.
Personally, I use verilog. Jess uses VHDL. It has been my intention to make Oak verilog-centric, but that debate hasnt really come to a head yet.
gbulmer
Moderator
I am currently assuming I'll likely have to learn both.
I just did a quick straw poll at amazon for verilog and VHDL books.
There seemed to be a similar number before the example quotes had become references to other books. Though quite a lot of VHDL was in German, and a block of Verilog were unavailable.
Summary: quite a lot of books, very few looked fun :-)
A guy I know who teaches this stuff seems to insist people learn to use the simulator, so I guess that needs to be free (at least gratis, but preferably libre) too.
My two cents on VHDL vs. Verilog: it's an institutional choice. However, I'm only seen VHDL in my undergraduate and graduate education. At work (ex-Lucent), our department uses VHDL for FPGA and ASIC development.
For the hobbyist and student, Xilinx offers a free IDE that works with either: http://www.xilinx.com/tools/webpack.htm. With it, I did a few examples from the text VHDL PROGRAMMING BY EXAMPLE by Perry.
gbulmer
Moderator
larryang - does http://www.xilinx.com/tools/webpack.htm provide the simulator too?
My friends current board uses Xilinx, so I can usefully spend time with "webpack".
Did you enjoy using VHDL PROGRAMMING BY EXAMPLE by Perry?
I am looking for a very accessable, hands-on, VHDL or Verilog book.
Yeah, the webpack has a simulator (lite version of http://www.xilinx.com/tools/isim.htm). A few years ago I used it to implement a FFT and verified it in simulation.
The book was okay. I wouldn't say enjoy though. Haven't been exposed to other texts, so can't help much there.
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