A Comparative Study between two 32-bit microcontrollers - the Atmel AT91SAM3X8E and the Microchip PIC32MX250F128B

-
As previously mentioned (http://electel.blogspot.com/2016/09/200000-views-ithaca-arm-and-dmips.html) I’m doing an independent study under the supervision of Professor Bruce Land here at Cornell University. A semester has passed and I will be continuing my independent study next semester.

The independent study (that I'm doing and will be continuing) is on exploring and comparing the peripheral modules of the Microchip PIC32MX250F128B (on the Microstick II platform) and the Atmel AT91SAM3X8E (on the Arduino Due platform). This semester, I've done a good amount of introductory exploration of the two 32-bit microcontrollers.

Here are the links to the datasheets of the two microcontrollers on which my independent study is based:

AT91SAM3X8E: www.atmel.com/Images/doc11057.pdf
PIC32MX250F128B: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/61168E.pdf

The Microchip PIC32MX250F128B is a 32-bit RISC microcontroller based on the MIPS M4K core. In this independent study, I have used the Microstick II platform provided by Microchip.  The  Atmel  AT91SAM3X8E  is  a  32-bit  ARM  microcontroller  based  on  the Cortex-M3 core. In this independent study,  I have used the Arduino Due platform (which is based on the Atmel AT91SAM3X8E microcontroller) provided by Arduino.

Here is the report of my independent study for the first semester, where I have presented my findings and learning:





After writing up the independent study, I have been playing more with both the controllers and experimenting on a bunch of stuff, including (but not limited to) tinkering with different compilers (mikroC PRO for PIC32 and XC32), a mini oscilloscope using the AT91SAM3X8E which I hope to expand into an ECG device, a similar project with the PIC32 and documenting all the different peripherals I'm working on.

I have posted my independent study report in the hope that it will help others who are studying on these two 32-bit controllers (PIC32MX250F128B and AT91SAM3X8E) and hope that it will help them get introduced to the controllers, the two microcontroller series (PIC32 and AT91SAM3) and the corresponding platforms (Microstick II and Arduino Due) mentioned in the independent study report. I will be posting more as I continue my independent study. Please let me know what you think in the comments section below!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using the TLP250 Isolated MOSFET Driver - Explanation and Example Circuits

-
Image
I’ve already shown how to drive an N-channel MOSFET (or even an IGBT) in both high-side and low-side configurations in a multitude of ways. I’ve also explained the principles of driving the MOSFETs in these configurations. The dedicated drivers I’ve shown so far are the TC427 and IR2110. Some people have requested me to write up on MOSFET drive using the very popular TLP250. And I’ll explain that here. The TLP250, like any driver, has an input stage, an output stage and a power supply connection. What’s special about the TLP250 is that the TLP250 is an optically isolated driver, meaning that the input and output are “optically isolated”. The isolation is optical – the input stage is an LED and the receiving output stage is light sensitive (think “photodetector”). Before delving any further, let’s look at the pin configuration and the truth table. Fig. 1 - TLP250 Pin Configuration Fig. 2 - TLP250 Truth Table Fig. 1 clearly shows the input LED side and the receiving photodetector as well
Read more

N-Channel MOSFET High-Side Drive: When, Why and How?

-
Image
I had previously shown how to drive N-channel MOSFETs in low-side configuration. You can find the tutorial here: http://electel.blogspot.com/2016/12/low-side-mosfet-drive-circuits-and_23.html I’ve been requested to write a tutorial/article regarding high-side MOSFET drive. So, here I’ll talk about N-channel MOSFET high-side drive. Let’s first look at the common low side configuration.  Fig. 1 - N-channel MOSFET configured as low-side switch Now let’s look at a MOSFET configured as a high-side switch. Fig. 2 - N-channel MOSFET configured as high-side switch You can quite easily see the difference between the high-side configuration and the low-side configuration. In the low-side configuration, the load is connected between the drain and +V, while the source is connected to ground. Thus, the gate drive is referenced to ground. So by applying a voltage of >7V (for Power MOSFETs) or >4V (for Logic Level MOSFETs), the MOSFET can be fully turned on. Now let’s talk about the high-side c
Read more

Using the high-low side driver IR2110 - explanation and plenty of example circuits

-
Image
In many situations, we need to use MOSFETs configured as high-side switches. Many a times we need to use MOSFETs configured as high-side and low-side switches. Such as in bridge circuits. In half-bridge circuits, we have 1 high-side MOSFET and 1 low-side MOSFET. In full-bridge circuits we have 2 high-side MOSFETs and 2 low-side MOSFETs. In such situations, there is a need to use high-side drive circuitry alongside low-side drive circuitry. The most common way of driving MOSFETs in such cases is to use high-low side MOSFET drivers. Undoubtedly, the most popular such driver chip is the IR2110. And in this article/tutorial, I will talk about the IR2110. You can download the IR2110 datasheet from the IR website. Here's the download link: www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/ir2110.pdf First let’s take a look at the block diagram and the pin assignments and pin definitions (also called lead assignments and lead definitions): Fig. 1 - IR2110 block diagram (click on image to enlarge)
Read more