Parallax has released their Propeller C3 application board.
Features include: Multicore Propeller P8X32A-Q44 with 5.00 MHz socketed crystal to upgrade for over-clocking experiments, 64 KB Propeller boot EEPROM holds boot image plus 32 KB extra for data, USB or external power sources, dual high-current filtered 1.5 A 3.3/5 V voltage regulators, VGA port, RCA Video/Audio ports for NTSC/PAL composite video, PS/2 port for keyboard or mouse, 1 MB SPI FLASH memory, 2-channel Microchip MCP3202 SPI A/D converter with 12-bit resolution, (2) Microchip 32K x 8 bit SPI SRAMs, MicroSD card w/SPI interface, 2 x 16 headers exporting IO and system signals, servo headers. An interesting aspect of the board is its novel SPI bus design that allows all the onboard peripherals to be accessed with a single SPI bus (3 signals) along with chip-select logic (2 signals) that supports up to 8 devices in total.
$80 USD for this board – Gaghhh! The design is open, and will benefit from improvement, especially with a go-anywhere enclosure and a Li-Poly battery charger/interface. Everyone, please fire up your EDA Suite and make an open solution we can buy via the likes of SeeedStudio (not affiliated).
I can’t do it right now, I’m traveling. But I’d like to see a C3 clone on the likes of Seeed for half the Parallax price PDQ. Teach them a lesson!
Parallax tried to justify the astronomical price of the C3 on their Propeller Forum. I don’t buy into it at all. The HUGE development costs are due to HIGH burdened labor rates in the U.S. These costs are totally unjustified. The COMMUNITY could (and hopefully will) come up with a same-similar-better C3-like board soon. Parallax chose NOT to use their loyal Community to mitigate costs. Bad move Parallax.
Are you high?
Really have you any experiance with microcontrollers?