I’ve been meaning to cover a new processor for a couple of months now; and have found reason after reason for putting it off; sure some of you might point out my new daughter or that fact that my job sucks out loud. But I’ll mark it up to a predisposition for procrastination. I can be honest here, right?
Anyway it is now time at last, to give this chip some of the credit it’s due.
One of the links I have is to a company names Parallax Inc. These are the folks who’ve been building a market for their ‘Basic Stamp’ processor line. For some time now, single chip computers (called PIC’s) have been making life in our modern age possible. But they have been very problematic when it comes to programming. The ‘Basic Stamp’ removed that barrier by providing a simple language and a very intelligent compiler.
These bright folks have gone off; and designed there own processor, the ‘Propeller’ (complete with beanie cap and everything). It’s exceeding well designed and very creatively pulled off. Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel and designing some power mad super chip; they instead bundled 8 very capable processors into one package.
The Propeller is built around a very straight forward Hub and Cog design. The Hub polls that Cogs (the 8 processors) to see if they require access to shared memory and then moves onto the next cog. It you’ve every played with marshalling or semaphore issues with multi-user/processor systems you can appreciate they simple beauty here.
I have an issue with the Phase Lock Loop system and the external crystal, and would have preferred a built in high resolution digital oscillator, but this is such a minor point I wouldn't even being it up in polite company.
Should you doubt the brilliance of this design, I would point you over to Intel’s web site and take a look at their future processor designs. They are almost identical.
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