Re: News : ARM Trying to Buy AmperComputing

On 1/17/25 2:05 AM, rbowman wrote:

On Fri, 17 Jan 2025 00:46:02 -0500, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
 

    That's actually a very clever design - copes with both universes !
>
    How smoothly the disparate cores work together, dunno.

 You can only use two cores at one time. I've read you can have one ARM and
one RISC-V but I haven't verified it.
 

    With these things, it's the intended application that's the relevant
    factor. Maybe you can't run Linux on some of the chips but there's
    usually some cut-down substitute that'll get yer job done. Seriously
    MICRO microcontrollers,
    well, it's still gonna be ASM and 'C' - more like Arduinos and PICs.
    Can't fit an OS into everything ...

 Sure for the really small sole use devices. Even the Uno R4 has a 32-bit
ARM Cortex-M4. I've got a couple of Nano Sense 33s that use the nRF52840,
another Cortex-M4 design. Even Microchip is on board with the PIC32CX-BZ2,
another Cortex-M4 SOC with BLE. There will always be a market for chips
like the original PICs or AVRs for rice cookers.

   Yep, an important segment.
   NOT everything needs 'cloud' - just a speck of IQ.
   Even 4-bit MPs are often quite adequate.
   For yer crock-pot ... bimetallic thermal 'iq' is
   all it needs ... about 79 cents .....
   People DO seriously over-think the 'basics' these days.

I've used the C SDK with the RP2040. You definitely have more control than
using MicroPython but like all C and Python comparisons you're doing a lot
more low level boilerplate to get the job done. If you need it the speed,
control, and memory it's there. I don't know if hand coded ASM would buy
much. C compilers are pretty good these days.
 The interesting conversation these days is the next RTOS. ARM is dropping
the Mbed OS, EOL July 2026. Zephyr is one of the contenders.

   Hmmm ... look into OS-9 ... an oldie RTOS but still
   being actively developed. Kinda "unix-like". NOT
   "free" however.