[sdiy] LFSR digital noise source

[Tom Wiltshire]

> On 12 Nov 2019, at 16:52, Gordonjcp <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Nov 12, 2019 at 03:14:47PM +0000, Tom Wiltshire wrote:
>> ..because throwing a 32-bit chip at a job like this is a total waste? Even the tiniest 8-bit PIC isn’t really breaking a sweat doing stuff like this. You could do it on one of the little 6-pin SOT PIC10F chips.
>> 
> 
> Right, but when an STM32F103 on a wee board is £2 and an off-brand
> Arduino clone is £5, you may as well throw brute force at it.

TWO POUNDS! TWO WHOLE POUNDS!! ;)

I wouldn’t waste more than 50p on a chip to do this job!!

I agree with most of Steve’s arguments - easier to program, quicker, etc. Those are the reasons why I think a uP solution beats a pure hardware one. But it simply doesn’t need a 32-bit chip. Yeah, ok, you can write it in C on a 32-bitter and probably get some tool to set the thing up for you. And it costs you £1. But I can write it in assembly on a chip that costs £0.50p just as quickly. Now, personally, I do that for my own satisfaction since I only need a few, but if I was producing ten million units, I’d have powerful financial reasons for using an 8-bit chip. Volume helps, and there are such a vast number of little tiny jobs that an 8-bit chip can do that the cost-sensitive/volume applications will always require them. Unless us human beings successfully manage to over-complicate everything…I admit this is a possibility when fridges have internet connections ;)