Why name change from Stellaris to Tiva?

As the 3rd or 4th promised release date of "production qualified" LM4F (to replace LX4F) has now more than 10 days passed - might it be that name-change will obscure? 

Have an especially nice vendor T-shirt as "award" - while country of origin bit blurred - "NRND" (& contact local Sales) leaps from red label...

AWN - we need your patented UK understatement to crack wise...

Now I'm starting to understand you! LOL!

Cheers,

greenja said:

Now I'm starting to understand

Regular listening/reading tends to yield that effect...

If we can't laugh about this ongoing misfortune...   One notes that Tiva - thus far - has escaped both missed ship dates & NRND "promotion."

So "Stellarisware" also becomes "Tivaware" - although http://www.ti.com/stellarisware still works, but http://www.ti.com/tivaware doesn't!

I guess someone at TI must be percieving a seriously bad reputation for the "Stellaris" name, and is desparate to disconnect from that legacy?

The harder TI try to disconnect from the "Stellaris" history, the less reasons remain for anyone to see "Tiva" as an upgade or migration path for "Stellaris".

So, having only just reorganised the Forums to have a "Stellaris LM4F" section (which took a few goes to get working), their now going to have to go through the whole palaver again to change it to Tivo!

And they'll also have to change the upper "Stellaris® ARM® Microcontrollers" section name to something generic so that it can contain both "Tivo" and "Stellaris"...

Andy Neil said:

change it to Tivo (sic)

Ha! It's not even a memorable name - too easily confused with other product name already established among the "little grey cells"...

Gentlemen,

i really admire your very fast response on this! :)

anyway, just my two cents. I talked about this with the marketing team, there will be an official statement (press release or something like that) probably at the beginning of next week. So just wait and see. Unfortunately I can't tell you more than this (and also don't ask me more than this - i am just a normal engineer :) ).

Hi,

been away for some days and returned today, visited the TI website and: What the hell is going on there! Took me quite some time to figure out that Stellaris M4F is now Tiva! All 'old' Stellaris parts were gone (although none of them wnet into full production) and all new Tiva devices. I hope there will be a comparison chart in the NEAR future showing the relationsship Tiva product numer >-> Stellaris M4F designation.

Just checked the 'Launchpad' and figured out that the Tiva™ TM4C123GH6PM Microcontroller is identical to LM4F230H5QR. Well, not bad since you now get hardware PWM on the Launchpad, but: I'm quite happy I only spend $4.99 for my 'old LM4F120.. based' Launchpads (believe me, I have some of them).

EDIT: By the way: Looks like the whole infrastructure is not  'up-to-day' at the moment (i.e. CCS needs to be updatetd too to reflect the 'naming change'). And: still no silicon in sight!

Rgds
aBUGSworstnightmare

Leo Hendrawan said:

I talked about this with the marketing team

Leo - many here (to include this reporter) think you are great.  That said...

Hope that your talk did not too intrude into normal - Junior High "work-day" - of hallowed, "marketing team..."

Smoke/Mirrors sometimes requires deeper thought - and some soundness of execution. 

Total avoidance of latest, "Missed LX4F Deadline" - and replacement w/this "marketing disconnect" (to be kind) suggests perhaps that, "we inmates might do as well at running/managing famed silicon asylum..."

Cascade of further torment now awaits all loyal (and hugely discouraged) Stellaris Fans:

IDEs must now struggle to adjust - incorporating changed part prefix as beginning. 

Distributors - most displeased by earlier "NRND dictate" - now have to relist/alter their presentations. 

And - such drastic a change costs serious time/money/effort - does this not divert resources from the long promised "taming/completion of M4" - so that they may - at last - gain full, "Ready for Prime Time" Status?  (i.e. escape ongoing LX4 horror...)

Name change is easy - value proposition/correction....not so much...  (do excuse my cough - smoke induced "unanticipated consequence...")

All,

There is an announcement coming Monday that should answer all your questions.

The website is undergoing updates and as such is having some issues, we apologize for the inconvenience during this period, we are fixing it as fast as possible.

Come Monday we'll be able to answer all your questions in depth.

-Austin

Yes, the website is really screwed up!  I have been approved twice to download "TivaWare" and sent to a download page that does absolutely nothing.

Now that everybody knows the name "stellaris" and you have name recognition, you want to change it?  What newbie marketing hack came up with that idea?

The TivaWare download was having issues and should be working now. You will need to clear your browser cache and resubmit an export control form. I just verified it to work.

-Austin

No doubt the fallout from this will continue for months - just as the LM3S shift to NRND...

http://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/stellaris_arm/f/901/p/258561/904515.aspx#904515

http://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/stellaris_arm/f/901/p/258190/903489.aspx#903489

Announcement went out on the wire this morning. Check it out 

http://newscenter.ti.com/2013-04-15-TI-introduces-new-Tiva-C-Series-ARM-Cortex-M4-microcontrollers-MCUs-for-connected-applications 

^{Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't product announcements usually indicate when the announced parts will be available?  And, which members are expected first?}

Dave

So change the name from Stellaris to Tiva to confuse the market.

Obsolete the entire Cortex M3 series to disappoint the market.

Don't have a Cortex M4 microcontroller with ethernet to add further to the disappointment.

I liked it better the way it was!

Dave,

TM4C devices are RTPed and orderable through direct distributors today. You will see them in online distributors and LaunchPads will start shipping in June.

BTW Derek - i like the blog you're building. I encourage you guys on the forum to post links to similar work.

http://fixituntilitsbroken.blogspot.com/ 

Vito

Check out the Tiva C Series forum.

http://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/tiva_arm/f/908/t/258794.aspx 

miguel2667 said:

TM4C devices are RTPed

This may be too "inside" for many...  (and the RTP acronym has a more "established" - general computer usage... Real Time Transport Protocol)

As there has been such delay - such sea changes - simplicity/directness may prove wise...

Good point - RTP = released to production

Thanks, this announcement was what I was looking for.

http://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/tiva_arm/f/908/t/258794.aspx

hi all

starting from what I have on my desk (and on my HDD)... maybe it is the something real....

I have a EK-LM4F120XL red light PCB with 2 .... LX4F120H 5QRFIGA3... and it matched to what I read on web, everywhere on TI website.

Let me just refresh my browser, let me check again marker on Stellaris Launchpad chips.... wow .... what's happens? My CHIP no more exist for TI?!?!?

Fortunately some web pages are still there like wiki

Let me cite it:

The LaunchPad board features an 80MHz LM4F120H5QR microcontroller, on-board emulation and BoosterPack XL format expansion pins. The LM4F120H5QR microcontroller has 256KB of flash memory, 32KB of RAM, 2KB of EEPROM, two 12-bit analog to digital converters, a USB 2.0 device port, a hibernation module, other serial connectivity and flexible GPIO.

IT talk about LM4F120H5QR (not LX4F as on my board). Let me search it on TI website --> TI search engine point to  http://www.ti.com/product/LM4f120H5qr but it is no more reachable. It is redirected to http://www.ti.com/product/TM4C1233H6PM.

I spent some time (time is money) to read TI forum, I also read TI press news. Let me cite again:

DALLAS, April 15, 2013  ...... announces its new Tiva™ ARM^® MCU platform.  The first devices in the new platform – Tiva C Series TM4C123x ARM Cortex-M4 MCUs – are the...... lower power.  The Tiva C Series TM4C123x MCUs, formerly known as Stellaris^® LM4F MCUs,...

what? It means that TI just decide to rename chip on my Launchpad board? Stellaris family is now Tiva family? But family component are the same? Chip on my board that was in Stellaris family is now in Tiva family? Nothing more?

... are in production today ....

I do not understand. TI rename Stellaris family in Tiva family and add some new chips to this family? But old ones should still be there?No?Yes?With same name?They disappear at all, they no more exist, deleted also from history of TI? No more documentation? No more support? No more production? Is my LM4F120H5QR in Tiva family?yes with another name? no it remain in Stellaris family?What?

... The $12.99 USD EK-TM4C123GXL  Tiva ARM C Series LaunchPad is available for purchase now.

I pay just $ 5 USD for my "was Stellaris" is Tiva Launchpad, just few month ago.

Ok. Stop to struggle: I read http://www.ti.com/lit/an/spma035d/spma035d.pdf and http://www.ti.com/lit/an/spma049/spma049.pdf

But both of them talk about transition from LM3S series, that was a Stellaris family component, but not LX4F/LM4F on my desk. Is this document applicable?

Ok, I need datasheet for what I have on my desk.... it was at : http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/spms294c/spms294c.pdf  <--- THE LINK IS BROKEN!!! [as symlink : http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm4f230e5qr.pdf]

Ok, no problem, TI redirect me to http://www.ti.com/product/TM4C1233H6PM. Let me trust of it. Let me take Tiva™ C Series TM4C1233H6PM Microcontroller Data Sheet --> ok on this document title there's :

(identical to LM4F120H5QR)

Means that chip on my desk, is now called TM4C1233H6PM. If I buy a TM4C1233H6PM, TI will send to me a chip marked with TM4C1233H6PM but that is 100% like LM4F120H5QR? Can I solder it to my Stellaris Launchpad? And flash it with same bin?

And what is on new Tiva Launchpad (and cost $ 12.99 USD) is TM4C123G, something different from  TM4C1233H6PM. "G" instead of  "3H" make the difference?

15 April announce talks about TM4C123x, which ones of them ?

...a lot of question I know.... let us know

EDITED : KEIL still have LM4F datasheet . From comparison of them, I just recall to myself that LM4F120H5QR == TM4C1233H6PM

BR

Mik

Mik,

I'll try to address the technical side of this.

The LM4F120 is identical to the TM4C1233H6PM in terms of pins and features, form and function.  You can solder the TM4C onto the launchpad you can load it with the same binary.  The TM4C is a later revision of silicon several of the errata have been resolved. It is the same design and same chip. Likewise you can take TivaWare code and run it on the LM4F120 devices.

The Tiva LaunchPad added USB OTG and USB Host functions as well as QEI and Motion (advanced) PWMs. That is the reason for change to the TM4C123G.  The TM4C123GH6PM is identical to the LM4F230H5.  TivaWare does not yet take advantage of the new features so all TivaWare examples run on the Stellaris LaunchPad.

The confusion regarding the X in the silicon part number on the chip is because prior to full production release and qualification we mark the silicon with an X.  The first few Tiva launchpads may have the XM4C marking.  However, very quickly we will switch to TM4C parts.  All Tiva parts are currently the same silicon revision   (B1) the XM4C's were just early builds of the same device and revision.  All Stellaris M4F parts will have the X.  For most LaunchPad users the X is just there for TI's logistics and tracking purposes and has no effect.

The Tiva announcement means that the parts on LaunchPad are now available to order from distributors including those that specialize in low volume.  Lead times are long at the moment but that will get better as we continue to ramp.

Dexter

Thanks, Dexter. You covered the meat of the issue, I think.

I will add that the difference between the TM4C123G and the TM4C1233 is in feature capabilities. The 'G' variant supports USB OTG/H/D as well as motion control. The '3' variant support USB Device Only and does not include the motion control PWM peripheral.

In other words, we put the superset family member on the LaunchPad, but as long as you do not use USB OTG, Host, or motion control PWM peripherals your code will be fully applicable to the TM4C1233.

thank Dexter... quite clear replay. Thanks. Let me proceed to explore TI Cortex world on my Launchpad.

BR

Mik

HI, 

I am a consultant in ARM microchips. Giving advice to  use Stellaris Cortex-M3 after TI bougth this company was a mistake that did cost me a lot of my reputation. Some guy from ST told me a rumor FLASH memory in Stellaris chips had been able to rewrite  200 times only so it was a reason to stop STM32F3 production. The businnes politics of the TI from the time when it bought Stellaris company till today  is incredible bad - the TI is - at least for me - untrustful, so no recomendation for TI core M4 any more.  

It's very easy to loose a brand name -  all my clients love producers guarrantee production of chips for at least 10 years like Microchip or Freescale because expenses for a new development without added values because of stopped production of microchips are enerrmous.   

Regards  Igor

Igor Pokorny said:

It's very easy to loose a brand name -  all my clients love producers guarrantee production of chips for at least 10 years like Microchip or Freescale because expenses for a new development without added values because of stopped production of microchips are enerrmous.   

 I Igor, I think you are right, the best IMHO was to announce LM3S experience bad issues and no effort to correct so production stop when LM4S substitute appear on market...

 TI suddenly stopped and this appear as worst, also no direct path from LM3S to LM4S exist so also all development kit we bought are useless too :(

 Time money and investment as you say sound bad, other company use different fading policy providing clear support for what in production, we know little about TI and internal policy but everyone here think the move of cancelling a series is BAD!!

 TI is acting buying some company with silicon that compete her product, (again IMHO) stellaris was a very bad move and silicon revealed too many issues, so a clean announcement of NRND and slow fading of production and support ...

 IHMO... fading out some useless series but leave all devices cannot have a drop in..

 LM4S need (at almost for some time) be direct replacement of LM3S

  ... About Microchip I abandoned in favour of TI when I experienced not less trouble than Stellaris.... USB chip I choosed announced NEVER come to market and disappeared soon, price, support, not at least poor performance at eq prices, evasive answer from support, silly answer like you powered in or have you an xtal connected...

 Freescale sometimes allocates production and you are out of business for some LONG time...

 TI Ethernet PHY part have no substitute from NONE company.. (IMHO and not only) This is the worst error of TI, leave in production till ready, announce slow obsolescence due to worst silicon issues... Long term can be redesigned, direct replacement can also save all hardware designed till now... We know too less again and too less why TI hide behind NDA licence...

 I am evaluating LM4S .. Again launchpad and samples have lead time of 11 12 week :(((((