No Subject

[jfox@xxxxxxxxxx (Jeff Fox)]

Dear MISC readers:

This is an answer as to the availability of P8.

The problem with P8 is that the owner of the design has this targeted
for a specific application, that is to replace a bunch of chips in
his product.  P8 at this time has only a little ROM and no off chip
RAM connections.  (Ie strip an MuP21 down to the 8 bit boot memory
space, and then put that 8 bit memory as rom on chip.  This means
that the P8 will only need 8 pins. (and only cost a few cents to make)  
I asked Chuck about this last time I saw him, and he confirmed that
the owner of P8 does not want the details of his chip made public,
nor does he intend to sell chips to the public.  (they would be
very little use except to duplicate his own product)
Chuck said that future P8 will be a derivative of F21 anyway.
F21 has made many changes to the chip since P21, and future P8
designs will take more advantage of the architecture.
P8 is one of the options on Chuck's custom chip options.  If you
want a P8, you would need to get a very clear idea of what you
need, and then convice Chuck to work you into the line with
the options you want.
I think people in robotics want the timers, interrupts, latches,
and a/d d/a that microcontrollers tend to have.  P8 would be a
natural for these things.
Chuck talked about what he would like to do with P8, with is put
it into the same pinout as a ram or uvprom so you could just make
a sandwich of three chips to get a system.  But unless someone
wants to fund the development of a P8 for sale the only P8 that
you likely to see in the near future will just be a cheap chip
in a cheap consumer item. (and the owner would like to keep this
market to himself)
I hope this isnt too  disapointing, but for years many people have
been long on ideas and short on money.  P8 is a real chip, but is
sold, and the owner wants to keep it.  I imagine that there will
be more P8 variations in the future, when someone has enough
interest and resources to make it happen.
Again the initial P8 will not have any external memory, nor will
it be user programmable, but more important it is not for sale.
So it is true that you can get your own variation of P8 for under
$.10 you will have to fund development and production in large
quantities to get the cost down.
This could change tomorrow.  If there was one person out there
with both some sense and some money they would make a P8 variation
for sale.

Jeff Fox