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Impressive price point. I'd like to understand, what can you realistically do with these?
https://cpldcpu.wordpress.com/2024/05/02/machine-learning-mn...
Impressive price point. I'd like to understand, what can you realistically do with these?
The 38kHz signal support clearly indicates that this is a TV Remote Control chip.
https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/9838991700773145118.file-1700...
Impressive price point. I'd like to understand, what can you realistically do with these?
English data sheet: https://www.nyquest.com.tw/upload/2024_02_293/NY8A051H_v1.6....
38kHz support for IR is a nifty feature (this is the "TV Remote" signal). Its a real niche, this is probably the cheapest thing that can make a TV Remote. A couple of AA batteries and you'll have 5 years of life. Forget "sleep", a lot of TV Remotes just go fully off after each button press. When a button is pressed, reset the computer, figure out which button, send the IR signal at 38kHz and then turn off again. The…
Like you say - with 1kb "rom" and 48 whole bytes of ram you can make a TV remote, or the thing that debounces a switch, maybe something that decodes SP/DIF, control a battery charger, drive a vape ... all sorts of edge 'tasks' can become just one SKU and a couple of hundred bytes of code. Wild.
Do you have to get these programmed at the factory?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, they _are_ tested during manufacturing. > Honestly, this is where I'd love RISC-V to be making inroads A 32-bit CPU is way too big for this price point still.
> A 32-bit CPU is way too big for this price point still. Not sure what you mean by "this price point" but CH32V003 is RISC-V and around 10 cents. It is only 6 times more expensive.
I mean, clearly we're at the "splash the cash" end of the Chinese processor market here but at least you get good bang for buck.
Impressive price point. I'd like to understand, what can you realistically do with these?
Make a LED candle? https://cpldcpu.wordpress.com/2019/09/28/a-led-candle-based-...
Following the link in that page to manufacturer and then to 'microcontroller units' shows 14 products, all 'not recomended for new designs', except for the ones with zero stock.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
38kHz support for IR is a nifty feature (this is the "TV Remote" signal). Its a real niche, this is probably the cheapest thing that can make a TV Remote. A couple of AA batteries and you'll have 5 years of life. Forget "sleep", a lot of TV Remotes just go fully off after each button press. When a button is pressed, reset the computer, figure out which button, send the IR signal at 38kHz and then turn off again. The…
I see these $miniscule microcontrollers are being more or less the end of the road for ASIC's, apart from those that have high performance requirements. Like you say - with 1kb "rom" and 48 whole bytes of ram you can make a TV remote, or the thing that debounces a switch, maybe something that decodes SP/DIF, control a battery charger, drive a vape ... all sorts of edge 'tasks' can become just one SKU and a couple of…
You consolidate support for different systems... much like how this chip has a dedicated 38kHz generator, other chips can have more flexible timers that support other frequencies, dedicated UARTs, USARTs, I2C, SPI that leads to better communication to other devices.
For example:
> control a battery charger
Okay, to make a battery charger requires:
1. Current measurement. Current measurement requires a shut-resistor (ex: 0.1Ohms) and an ADC. But the ADC needs to be able to measure micro-volts if you want any level of accuracy (1mA across 0.1 Ohms == 0.1mA aka 100uV of change) This is possible with either 16+ bit ADCs, or alternatively an ADC with x16 or more gain (effectively gaining "4-bits of zoom").
2. Alternatively, you can have Chopper/Instrumentation OpAmps that voltage-multiply the current shunt up to a level that your ADCs can see it. (Instrumentation OpAmps and Chopper OpAmps have low Bandwidth-Gain but very accurate zeros aka Voltage Offset statistics).
3. You'll need a high-speed dual-timer and XOR to implement PWM with dead-zones to control two MOSFETs to make your buck (or boost) converter. You can turn on the "low side" MOSFET at the same time as the high-side MOSFET otherwise you literally just short power to ground, a few microseconds of dead-time is all you need to keep things safe (and utilizing flywheel diodes for those brief microseconds is fine). Higher-speed Buck/boost converters (ex: 2MHz) are possible but a fundemental timer much higher than that. Ex: if you want 5-bits of control over the 2MHz PWM, you'll need a 64MHz timer.
4. 64MHz timers are possible with Phase-locked-loops that multiply your fundamental frequency (ex: an 8MHz base clock) to the much faster speeds.
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So if we're talking about the cheapest equipment that controls a battery charger effectively, in a flexible way that other people can use the tidbits, we'll need:
* 64MHz timers / PWM at the 64MHz speed. (~6-bits of control over 1MHz PWM... to implement a possible PID controller or maybe just PI controller (no-D needed??) )
* Current-measurement circuitry (ADCs at 16-bits and/or a 16x Gain ADC at 12-bits, or OpAmps)
* Complex enough timers to handle "dead time". This is not easy and is a rare feature in my experience.
* Analog Comparators to sense the voltage going into the battery and perform logic. ADCs could work in theory but a dedicated Analog Comparator is cheaper, easier, and more reliable.
* Ideally temperature control on-board, to provide safety.
RP2040 fails because it doesn't have accurate enough ADCs (thus requiring a 2nd or 3rd chip for the Instrumentation-Amp to amplify the current high enough).
There are a large variety of 8-bit chips that have powerful enough timers + powerful enough analog equipment to handle all of this BTW. STM32 cheats by just providing lots of OpAmps, as does TI's MSPM0 line. A lot of this stuff is quite easy with OpAmps actually.
There's a few PIC and AVR chips that have powerful enough timers as well.
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Yes, even something as simple as a battery charger has a surprising amount of logic for the buck/boost behavior. Its something you can do from scratch with a uC and Microcontroller though.
But traditionally speaking, you build such circuits out of transistors and OpAmps instead. Today's uCs have all the right stuff in the right places (IE: 3x free OpAmps on the TI MSPM0) that solve large sets of these problems.