Hello All!
I have been asking on forums all over trying to find a good chipset to start development on a project and at this point I really like the abilities and scalability of the Piccolo line. I need to get some advice on if these Micros can do what I need. I am an experienced
programmer (PHP, C, C++, etc) but have only High School experience with
Microprocessors and the like so I am in the middle of a pretty rough learning curve.
Recently I was asked to work on prototyping some equipment that I
will eventually (if it is developed) be writing software around. My
problem is that I am not sure where to look--so here is the problem.
(and I apologize if it is vague but I have to regard my NDA where
possible)
I need an MCU, MCP, PLC, or some other logic device that will allow
me to get sensor reading from photoelectric sensors at an extremely
high rate of speed (read as 'resolution'), but also I need to be able
to read a LOT of these sensors.
My specs are looking at upwards of 200 separate sensors and needing
to be able to watch these sensors at a rate of .1 microsecond or less
per sensor so that I can complete the loop of 200 in under 24 microseconds. I am dealing with some high speed particles that will only be in the field for 24 microseconds so if I don't complete the loop in that amount of time I may miss the reading.
I know that I probably am not going to find one chip with 200 I/O pins that I can poll at that rate, so I am probably looking for a micro with as many I/O pins as possible and then I will have to hand that data downstream to another MCU to buffer the data. If I do go with a micro with less I/O pins then I can poll a little slower because I will be making smaller loops, so that may help with specs.
The GOOD news (if any) is that I only really need a very few output
pins (just enough to relay the fired pins to the next logical operator) and the logic is going to be VERY simple inside this
equipment so I don't need a lot of storage, just tons of speed and I/O. The only requirement that I have at this point is to be able to relay the address of the pin that is tripped back to my PC software for processing either directly over USB/Serial or through a buffer chip and then to the PC.
My first thought is to go straight for the 256 Pin, 32 Bit, 300MIPS Delfino, but is that what I need? If it matters I plan to use dark-on sensors to trigger interrupts on the board so that I don't miss multiple sensor readings in close timing.
Hope that didn't sound like too much of a newb, and thanks in advance for any advice!
