Finding the Controller

As you already know from the previous post the decision which microcontroller architecture to use was set pretty fast. Now the time came to find a chip and evaluation board for that project. The search took some months as my practical training ended and I came back to study. Finally with help from a developer, at the company I was working for at that moment, we finally found a chip and an evaluation board that seemed to fit the future projects, as also THC.

We decided that S3C44B0X would be the right choice and that the board S3CEV40 from Embest would be the right choice. We also found a distributor in Germany BSM-Technik.

Why did we decide that S3C44B0X would be the right one, you ask? Well... we wanted something that we can soldier by ourselves. That means that the packaging should be something like a QFP (Quad Flat Package). That are the chips where you see the pins on the sides. In the case of QFP you have the pins extending from all four sides of the package. Sadly the most ARM chips are produced only in BGA (Ball Grid Array) packages. These packages have a matrix of balls at the bottom of the package that are the contacts. To soldier BGA you need special equipment that we did not have. That would mean that we have to ask someone to soldier it for us. And that sux(TM). ;)

You say that there are other chips that have these specifications? There were also chips in QFP packages from Atmel and Philips but Atmel is expensive and Philips is not powerful enough.