minimalist pentium programming

[PedroTuga]

Hey all, ok tjis is weird but anyway...
i was wondering if its possible to use a pentium processor in some home made electronics project. I have plents of processeros i took out from old computers and i have no idea if they are easy to use. Like they have hundreds of pins,, a re they all necessary when doing a simple thing or we just need to use a few???

Is it reasonable to get a socket and some memory and do some pentium programming or does it makes no sense because of its complexity?i tried to look for some documentation on the web but its dificult, the word "pentium" seams to be averywhere...

[adrianxw]

Pentium processors are made by Intel. Their site is the place to go for info. You can download the datasheets fir processors there. Here for example is the latest 90nm processor datasheet download page.

[Tommaso]

I wouldn't bother unless your a computer chip designer. It is not feasable to use a pentium chip for electronic projects because they are much to complex. You should use a dedicated chip that is used in electronics. It would be much easier. You could use the chip if you used it in conjuction with a motherboard. Then you could use an OS and send info to the parellel or serial port to control certain processes. This is very bulky, and probably not desirable but the only way I could see using a pentium chip for what you want to do with it.

[PedroTuga]

well, i think you're right, i did some search on the web, and it seemed to be realy complex, i was already giving up, i was just waitnig for sombody to tell me that.
Thx

[ober]

There are other more feasible processors for projects like that. Check into Motorola, they make several that can be used for smaller projects.

[RobR]

Any that don't need too much kit to program Ober?

[ober]

Well, the rest of the hardware is up to you. Nothing was said about that, just the actual processor. It should come with a board with pin-outs and everything, and most likely a detailed layout, depending on where you get it from.

edit: wait.. I'm not sure what you mean by that. Explica por favor.

[RobR]

Well, as an example, if I want to program a 80C51 I need development kits, ICE's, compilers and so on. Mucho expensive. If I want to develop on PIC it's fairly cheap (free SDK, NOPPP from Covington etc).

What's the SP on Motorola?

[major_small]

take a look at BASIC stamps made by parallax... easy to program and not much extra hardware necessary... and the BoE bot is a good place to start... they can be programmed in BASIC, and there's a special chip (Javelin) that can be programmed in Java... they're basically meant for the low-end hobbyist type person...



Stamps: http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/p...sic_stamps.asp

Carrier Boards: http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/p...ing_boards.asp

BoE bot: http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=28132

Javelin: http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=JS1-IC

[ober]

Originally posted by RobR
What's the SP on Motorola?

Hmm.. I guess this question is a little out of my league. I never had to actually purchase the tools, I just used them. But the one I used was called the Motorola Star 12 (HCS12)... I think this is it: http://e-www.motorola.com/files/micr...2DT128DGV2.pdf