Date   : Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:36:41
From   : heyrick.beebsoc@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: [BeebSoc] Re: Harddisc fakery using a microcontroller

On 23/11/2010 07:00, Phill Harvey-Smith wrote:

> You might be better off with one of these :
> http://atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc8272.pdf
>
> AVR Atmega 1284, 128K of flash and 16K of ram, also available in DIP,

I was blown away by the capabilities of the PIC. Having read the 
datasheet for the ATmega, I'm speechless. I think I'll dump my homebrew 
computer board project as this one thing does it all, and lots more, in 
a single chip.


However... I am a newbie to all of this, so if you don't mind, a few 
questions:

1. Is there a *cheap* evaluation board for this device? It'd be better
    than mounting one on a piece of veroboard. ;-)

2. Is there a *cheap* USB programmer? I specify USB as it's all my
    eeePC offers.

3. C compiler/assembler? Pref. free if possible.

Emphasis on "cheap". Don't want to sound like a cheapskate, but when my 
pay comes in and I see over half of it get up and walk away by itself, 
it's a bit disheartening. [and the rest has to do me for the month, meh]


Thank you.


Best wishes,

Rick.

PS: One final thing - these chips work at a standard 5V, right? Does
     the SPI bus work at 5V as well? I'm thinking some faffing might be
     required to knock it down to the SD's 3.3V.