topic Re: Upgrade path suggestions in Mobile and Desktop Processors

Upgrade path suggestions

TJame1 — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 17:41:02 GMT

Greetings Folks,

I have am in a conundrum, and seek the advice of others. I need to upgrade a design, from significantly older technology, to current technology.

The project I have been assigned upgrading runs on a 80186, and I need to upgrade the design. This system does not use an OS at all, and all IO is memory mapped. I know it is past time to upgrade this design, yet it has just recently become pressing enough to make it the priority task list.

I am looking for upgrade path suggestions.

Any input is greatly appreciated,

Tim

Re: Upgrade path suggestions

AlHill — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 18:38:02 GMT

You should be able to go to a 286 with no trouble at all.

Doc

Re: Upgrade path suggestions

n_scott_pearson — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 20:00:15 GMT

This sounds like an embedded project, as opposed to a general-purpose PC. In most cases, the board would have been specific to the project. Tell us more about the requirements and we can better comment on possible choices for processors. I am thinking that you may be able to get away with something like an Arduino or Raspberry Pi board (they will certainly have better compute power than a 80186)...

...S

Re: Upgrade path suggestions

TJame1 — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 20:18:56 GMT

Ok, I should have given more details.

The board is custom designed. The design uses the AD[0..19] lines, as well as ALE, WR, RD, BHE UCS/LCS, and DEN lines to interface to the rest of the board as if it were memory. I believe the timing on the bus is 8 MHz range, as the CPU runs on a 32 MHz oscillator.

I am currently looking at two different options: BeagleBone Black/Sitara chip running either an RTOS, or no OS; and a Teensy[3.5/3.6] derivative. If I go with the Teensy option, I will be sure to contact Peter (pjrc.com) if I can get a proof of concept kluge up and running.

I thought, since the project was built on Intel, they might have an upgrade path at hand.

Tim

Re: Upgrade path suggestions

n_scott_pearson — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 20:50:27 GMT

Well, there *are* Arduino boards with Intel silicon on them...

...S

Re: Upgrade path suggestions

AlHill — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 22:38:21 GMT

Sorry, I could not resist the 286 response. Good luck with your project going forward.

Doc