Is it important if XMOS is a MCU or something else?
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:05 am
Here in the forum there is sometimes the discussion what XMOS is and what not. Even me started one of it to understand XMOS a bit better.
But yesterday I had a enlightening discussion with some friends. We discussed the advantages of XMOS versus FPGA and CDLP. I ended up beeing the XMOS fan boy, having problems to really get my point across why I like XMOS (mostly lack of knowledge about other technologies).
But during the discussion of FPGA and CDLP programming I realized the real advantage of XMOS:
Everything you can do with XMOS you can do it better (like in faster execution speed) with FPGA & CDLP.
Everything you can do with XMOS you can do better (like in easier implementation) with MCUs.
But with XMOS you can easily mix up those implementation (even though some CDLP have integrated processors). But most important: With XMOS it is hard to make mistakes which realy destroys your program. We discussed how you have to design and implement CDLP 'programs' to get it actually up and runnning and why your program can fail if you leave out parts (due to changed timing) and so on. Something completely unknown to me working with XMOS.
With XMOS you can sketch your idea and can implement it better and better. It is quite hard to implement it in a way it is not working at all. You do not have to follow certain practices to get success - even though there are some best practices to get real fast code. In the same time you are able to implement real fast code real fast. The implementation complexity is as high as the complexity of your requirements.
So XMOS is a good mix up between an MCU and something like an FPGA (at least you can implement real rea high performance behaviour). So it makes sense to implement real high quality XC code for real fast behaviour. It also makes sense to implement high level behaviour with more high level approaches (I do not mention C++/Objective C here to not provoke anybody).
Did I understand the XMOS at the end? What do you think?
But yesterday I had a enlightening discussion with some friends. We discussed the advantages of XMOS versus FPGA and CDLP. I ended up beeing the XMOS fan boy, having problems to really get my point across why I like XMOS (mostly lack of knowledge about other technologies).
But during the discussion of FPGA and CDLP programming I realized the real advantage of XMOS:
Everything you can do with XMOS you can do it better (like in faster execution speed) with FPGA & CDLP.
Everything you can do with XMOS you can do better (like in easier implementation) with MCUs.
But with XMOS you can easily mix up those implementation (even though some CDLP have integrated processors). But most important: With XMOS it is hard to make mistakes which realy destroys your program. We discussed how you have to design and implement CDLP 'programs' to get it actually up and runnning and why your program can fail if you leave out parts (due to changed timing) and so on. Something completely unknown to me working with XMOS.
With XMOS you can sketch your idea and can implement it better and better. It is quite hard to implement it in a way it is not working at all. You do not have to follow certain practices to get success - even though there are some best practices to get real fast code. In the same time you are able to implement real fast code real fast. The implementation complexity is as high as the complexity of your requirements.
So XMOS is a good mix up between an MCU and something like an FPGA (at least you can implement real rea high performance behaviour). So it makes sense to implement real high quality XC code for real fast behaviour. It also makes sense to implement high level behaviour with more high level approaches (I do not mention C++/Objective C here to not provoke anybody).
Did I understand the XMOS at the end? What do you think?