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1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

ti.com

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Re: 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

#11

Post by myrmidon »

LoganDark wrote: post #6

Could you put a few thousand of these on a PCB and have a super duper tiny compute cluster?

Yes, if you want all the drawbacks of distributed computing with none of the advantages: You'd probably be stuck with something UART based as interconnect, Every core is gonna have way too little RAM to do anything useful, you are missing like half the instruction set (floating point operations in software), and power draw at 4mW minimum per core adds up quickly to something that an efficient laptop-CPU would use.

On top of all this, latency for anything is gonna be abysmal because the cores are so slow...

I honestly don't see an application where this is even close to desirable.

Would be fun, tough, to have a 10-stack of PCBs with 10 by 10 CPUs each for a thousand cores (=> ~4W power @1.8V).

Re: 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

#12

Post by alex_suzuki »

emil-lp wrote: post #9
self_awareness wrote: post #2

It seems awesome, but I'm having a problem with figuring out how can a "normal" person use it. How would YOU use it, reader of this comment?

I'd buy it and put it in the Drawer of Dreams aka unfinished projects.

What a nice name for that particular box that keeps on growing and growing. Mine is called Why did I buy this, again?

Re: 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

#13

Post by aa-jv »

myrmidon wrote: post #11
LoganDark wrote: post #6

Could you put a few thousand of these on a PCB and have a super duper tiny compute cluster?

Yes, if you want all the drawbacks of distributed computing with none of the advantages: You'd probably be stuck with something UART based as interconnect, Every core is gonna have way too little RAM to do anything useful, you are missing like half the instruction set (floating point operations in software), and power draw at 4mW minimum per core adds up quickly to something that an efficient laptop-CPU would use. On…

Maybe not practical as a cluster configuration, but it could certainly be used as a voice-generating device for a synthesizer, or as a controlling device for MIDI I/O, or .. both even of course, configurable according to the users needs/patch idea.

Re: 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

#14

Post by wongarsu »

self_awareness wrote: post #2

It seems awesome, but I'm having a problem with figuring out how can a "normal" person use it. How would YOU use it, reader of this comment?

Anything where a reasonable person would say "this doesn't even need a microcontroller, just do it analog".

In terms of projects that I would be inclined to try that are uniquely enabled by this, my mind goes towards wearables. It's small enough to be hidden in seams of fabric. If you wanted to have a bunch of temperature sensors all over your body, or have a complex arrangement of dimmable LEDs woven into clothing, each string going to its own controller hidden close by and communicating with a central controller, or maybe measure your skin conductivity all over your body or something, this is a great piece of tech to do that with style. You still need to run power and data wires everywhere (no RF on this chip), but flexible wires are a very solvable problem.

Re: 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

#15

Post by aa-jv »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #4
self_awareness wrote: post #2

It seems awesome, but I'm having a problem with figuring out how can a "normal" person use it. How would YOU use it, reader of this comment?

It's got a UART, it's got a PWM, it's really fast, and it's got masses of memory. I'd build a really tiny synthesizer, port my Juno 106 plugin's voice engine to it. But like *really* tiny.

"Masses" of memory, it does not have. Sufficient to the task for synthesis? Maybe, if you do a fair bit of assembly ..

Re: 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

#17

Post by arnejenssen »

A silly question (from a non-HW guy). Why are digital bathroom scales so coarse? Some have a weight resolution of +/- 500 grams. Would a better microcontroller make a weight faster or more presise? I guess this TI micro controller is overkill for a bathroom scale.

Re: 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

#18

Post by lukan »

arnejenssen wrote: post #17

A silly question (from a non-HW guy). Why are digital bathroom scales so coarse? Some have a weight resolution of +/- 500 grams. Would a better microcontroller make a weight faster or more presise? I guess this TI micro controller is overkill for a bathroom scale.

Not an expert here, but I doubt it is related to processing power, but quality of the sensor.

Re: 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

#19

Post by myrmidon »

aa-jv wrote: post #13
myrmidon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you want all the drawbacks of distributed computing with none of the advantages: You'd probably be stuck with something UART based as interconnect, Every core is gonna have way too little RAM to do anything useful, you are missing like half the instruction set (floating point operations in software), and power draw at 4mW minimum per core adds up quickly to something that an efficient laptop-CPU would use. On…

Maybe not practical as a cluster configuration, but it could certainly be used as a voice-generating device for a synthesizer, or as a controlling device for MIDI I/O, or .. both even of course, configurable according to the users needs/patch idea.

Yeah, but even for those applications you suffer from limited RAM a lot; with 16bit samples at 48kHz the thing has 10ms of audio buffer (stereo: 5ms) if you don't need RAM for anything else :S

The ADC is really nice though, 1.5 MSPS is really good for such a small/low powered thing (fills the whole RAM in under half a millisecond).

Re: 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller

#20

Post by nneonneo »

LoganDark wrote: post #6

Could you put a few thousand of these on a PCB and have a super duper tiny compute cluster?

I'm reminded of TIS-100, a game where you program a cluster of tiny, parallel CPUs using a custom assembly language. It's painful to get basic stuff done, but you can do some amazing things with some effort.
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