What 8-bit embedded platform have you used for a design?

Question

I'm looking for an off-the-shelf 8-bit processor module or even an entire hardware platform you used in a design. You used this product and essentially put your software on it.
If you could mention the processor type and vendor it would be great. A small summary of the platform characteristics would also be great (e.g. 2 serial port, 1 10-base ethernet)

Think of this as an informal survey, so the actual capabilities of the platform don't really matter.

Edit: I'm really looking for off-the-shelf hardware modules, more than simply a processor. Actual capabilities don't matter greatly, as this is more of a survey.

Answer 1

We used the EM1500 from Rabbit Semiconductor. This is actually a product they sell (serial to ethernet bridge), but we opened it up, put our firmware on it and sold something entirely different.

I think the processor module was a Rabbit RCM3200.
4 RS-232 serial port. 1 RS-485, 10/100 ethernet.

It had what we needed, so why spin our own module (this was relatively low quantity).

Answer 2

16F84 from microchip:

• 8bits
• 68B of ram
• 64B of EEPROM
• 1024 words of code memory

Built a few things around that. Might not be what you wanted, and it is rather obsolete these days. Things have moved on since I was in HS :-)

Answer 3

I've used Microchip's PIC line of processors. Really cheap, lots of sample code, lots of processors to choose from.

Answer 4

I've used the Atmel AVR series of microcontrollers for about a dozen projects over the years. It is a microcontroller though so while they have lots of ADC's and IO ports, they generally only have a single serial port and usually no ethernet, you'll have to wire up an ethernet controller to the chip.

If you want to develop software that is going to use a lot of processing power, you might want to go to a 16 or 32 bit platform, like the AVR32, which has VGA, ethernet, etc capabilities.

A lot of info on the AVR's and a community forum is over at AVR Freaks

Answer 5

I've used

Rabbit processors (essentially extended Z180 8 bitters) - the core modules are very nice, the C compiler is included and comes with TCP/IP libraries, and many, many other get going quickly features.

Microchip PIC processors - you can get free C compilers for these, they have a large user base, and are fairly easy to work with.

Atmel AVR processors - A very large user community, and most of the line has a GCC port from 8 bits through 32 bits. The higher end processors will run Linux.

TI's MSP430 line (16 bit, though) is actually quite nice and has a special emphasis on low power (think watch battery processing that lasts years) and LCD control.

Freescale, ST, and lots of others as well, but the above have readily available hobbyist level software, programmers, and development kits.

On the other side, you've got Arduino, Basic stamp, and others. These are very easy to setup up and program, but may not be as cheap or powerful as running on the bare processor.

Answer 6

8051 are venerable and have various good cheap tool chains. They are also available as cores for VLSI (ASICs). They have serial ports, as do the PIC (microchip) mentioned above. I don't think you will find an 8-bit part with Ethernet, however.

Answer 7

The only 8-bit processors I've used in embedded systems have been 8051s, which I'm not a huge fan of. 32 bit microcontrollers have come down in price and power consumption to the point where I'd never consider using an 8-bit or 16-bit processor again.

8-bit:

• Silicon Labs ( used to be Cygnal) 8051, Keil toolchain. Good tools, good performance for an 8051. Still abysmal performance compared to modern architectures

16-bit:

• Freescale (used to be Motorola) HC11, Metrowerks toolchain. Decent C compiler, C++ was often buggy. Lousy performance, high price, used a lot of power.
• TI MSP430, Rowley toolchain. Great tools, good performance for it's clock speed. Very cheap, low power consumption.

32-bit:

• STM32 (ARM CortexM3), Rowley toolchain. Great tools, amazing performance per $ and per watt. Not any more difficult to program for than an 8- or 16-bit microcontroller, just a lot more powerful.

I'm not listing any bigger x86 and PPC CPUs I've used that because of cost or complexity wouldn't be suited to tasks typically performed by an 8-bit microcontroller.

Answer 8

For the atmel AVR processor family there exists a lot of evaluation boards even with usb or ethernet and the family has many different processors with different peripherals, like one or two usarts, many IO ports, I2C/TWI/SPI serial ports, A/D converters, etc.

There is a free gcc port (avr-gcc) and many community sites like avr freaks or the german mikrocontroller.net forums.

Answer 9

Why is it required to be an 8-bit ? Often the 16-bitters are more modern, and still more powerefficient (since produced on more modern lines)

Anyway, in the case that it really has to be an 8-bitter I'd go for the Microchip 18F series. There are a few models there with ethernet that I really like. But I really would go for the 16-bits series.