[sdiy] Small MCU MIPS, DMIPS?

[Noah Vawter]

On Feb 28, 2011, at 5:33 PM, Speth, John wrote:

>> Another thing that bugs me are why we still are
>> restricted to those silly amounts of RAM on small
>> MCUs?
>
> According to industry reps every time I ask it, RAM is the most  
> expensive (greatest die area) component in the device.  The vendors  
> weigh the market against cost and produce something they think they  
> can sell for a competitive price and still make money.

on the topic of expensive things i'd like on a chip:
I talked to some reps from Marvel begging for an FPU on  
microcontrollers.  they just laughed at me :(
They estimated FPU takes about 33% of real estate.  i cant confirm or  
deny this.

If anyone knows of an FPU available in a DIP package, I would love to  
know about it!
Spinsemi FV-1 is kinda FPU in some ways and package is workable...

Marvel suggested I use a numerator/denominator approach...  but that  
seems just as obnoxious as my current "fraction saving"  
techniques...     atlernatively, if anyone has some keen tricks for  
doing SVFs and/or BLITs in fixed-point, I'd like to see that, too.

-Noah

p.s. sorry to Barry and the rest of the socal crowd, I'm here, but my  
schedule is too busy to hack on FV-1s :(