Re: [avr-chat] Why 8051?

[David Kelly]

On Feb 18, 2009, at 6:58 PM, Mike Murphree wrote:

> >  Radiation hardening. If you need it, its not optional.
>
> I would think that other micros are (or can be) rad-hard.
>
> Ummm, no, not even close.
>
> Radiation hardened microprocessors use different construction and  
> electrical design techniques than garden variety 8051 and AVRs use.
>
> It's not uncommon to put soft processor cores into radiation  
> tolerant FPGAs and ASICs as a somewhat cheaper solution.


I haven't gone looking for AVR IP cores, and haven't been looking for  
8051 IP cores. Know one can get ARM and 68HC11 IP cores to tweak and  
upload into an FPGA to be rad-hard. Fully expect the 8051 family is  
available for the same. Never mind the FPGA chip costs hundreds or  
thousands of dollars, thats the way its done.

Last year we bought several COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) telemetry  
boxes which contained an FPGA with ARM core running embedded Linux.  
Commercial grade so each cost only $2k or $3k. But looking at one I  
had no doubt the designer had eyes on more esoteric applications.

--
David Kelly N4HHE, address@hidden
========================================================================
Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.