What to do with a small but very high speed processor

The key points are:

• Not much memory so it has to be "do something really fast and either summerize or get rid of or use the data... no storeage"
• Has to be something that benifits from extreem speed (or you would use a slower, cheaper, lower power proceesor) and that doesn't care about power useage (probably not a portable application).
• Should be something that benifits from being able to replace an existing hardware device (USART, PID, FPGA, Video Character Generator, etc...) and still needs a microcontroller for some higher level logic (Baud rate detect, Motor Control panel IO, Terminal Control Characters, etc..)

1. An LCD to RS232 adapter. Designed to replace a standard 44780 LCD often found in consumer devices like telephones, calculators, meters, thermostats, sprinker controllers, pagers, etc... so that they can be used as input for a computer (or adapted to the SERVID video display to make a two chip LCD to CRT adapter) or (using the free code space in the processor) to control some other device.
   
2. A direct LCD driver for graphic LCDs. The major cost on these things is the driver chip. A custom chip has to be made for each LCD produced. Given that the SX can produce 4x20 character TV video, it can also produce the drive signals for an LCD. The high speed of the SX chips would seem to offer a good replacement. And the extra code space makes it possible to do the "application" in the "LCD driver" for a single chip solution. Problems: You burn out lots of LCDs getting the code right. Also, Richard has already started on this and so has something of an advantage.
   
3. A controller for a "spinning mirror" LED display or scanner. The SX's speed offers higher resolution. Long story.. see /io/led/hud.htm and http://www.hut.fi/~then/mytexts/lasercontrol.html The problem is the mechanical construction required and the usefulness of the result.

   There is a long term idea that would just ROCK... but it involves

   • simple motor speed control (rather than just indexing to what ever speed the motor is running),
   • IR transmission and reception,
   • analog amplification of a weak video signal,
   • PC parallel port interface and
   • high speed graphics programming on the PC.

   Very complex unless done in small parts and it doesn't break down well as each part is sort of useless without the rest. See Mirror scanning intermittant-use low-cost camera
   

4. A SX sound player. You program the sound into the program memory and it plays it back via PWM. The limited memory in the SX makes the higher speed useless for this without some form of large serial memory (MMC?). Possible exception: If you know where to get ahold of small enough versions of the little sound bites called phonemes that make up speech and have a simple algorithem for putting them together, then you can make a higher quality (cause of the speed) talking chip. See http://www.piclist.com/microchip/bigtable.htm and http://www.piclist.com/microchip/dsp/wav2dt.htm
   
5. A video line recognizer. (not a line follower) Parses incomming video from a camera and reads then reports the "height" of a line from the horizontal sync pulse. What is the point? Optical Rangefinding First use a laser and a line splitter (about $60 for a laser diode, lens and line splitter from Jameco) or a scanning mirror to project a vertical laser line on an object or scene, then mount the camera just offset from the source of the projected line. The offset will cause the line to indicate the depth from the camera to the object. Now slowly rotate the entire assembly left to right over the subject. You just completed a 3d scan. (Or rotate the subject). Higher speed allows for greater accuracy in line measurement and reduces the need for offset, allowing greater variation in the subject being scanned. Great for robots where the extra code space can be used to control servos and implement navagation logic.
    
6. RC Car driver assist. Use a laser diode (laser pointer) to project out a beam at about a 45' angle from the front fenders of the RC Car. Two or three photodiodes with lenses (or the type with built in lenses) are pointed along that same angle but at different elevations. None of these are pointed in such a way that they will see the beam if the car is on level ground without any objects in that direction. One should be alligned to see the beam if it strikes an object a foot or two from the car, another if the beam appears 8 inches out and another if it appears 4 inches away. The singnal from the RC reciever that would normally go to the steering servo is instead plugged into the "driver assist" unit and the results of the range sensor readings are used to "bias" the steering signal to the left or right. This adjusted signal is then fed to the steering servo. The end result is that the car itself still responds to the operators input, but it "tends" to avoid hitting things on the sides.
   
7. Board design contests.

Questions:

• tonyeley at btinternet.com asks:

  I have found this page through a search engine whilst searching for "lcd to rs232 adapter" as I am trying to purchase such an adaptor and this is the only page that has any reference. Do you sell such an adaptor or can you tell me where I can get one? Thanks

  +

  Sadly, no, I don't have one. I just think it would be possible to make such a thing with a small, very fast, processor like the Ubicom SX chips.

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