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| | | PicPuter : Development : Future Additions |
PicPuter 2.0 has pretty much everything I wanted to add to PicPuter but there are always things on the wish list. The PicPuter code is getting quite tight. There is a lot to fit in the 4K instruction footprint but there are still a few places where I can optimize for size without effecting execution speed. First they will be used to fix bugs, then to add features. There is always a way to extend PicPuter basic using
USR or SYS commands.
Possible future additions to picputer.
A square root command would be useful for doing triangulation.
There is a few speed optimizations that I would like to implement. PicPuter runs at up to 17000 statements per second, which could be quite bit faster than the fastest turbocharged scenix basic stamp. But it is hard to compare the two without writting a program on both and testing it. You can always use the built in assembler or even another compilers output and the SYS command.
I always wanted PicPuter to be totally self contained. While PicPuter offers a 4x20 character display that can be used to write programs, a PC serial port connection is almost required to display enough lines to be usable. A TV display driver would be useful addition.
Right now you need to hook up a PicPuter to a PC serial port for input. A PC Keyboard driver is something that could be implemented without any additional hardware. I have written a keyboard decoder before for the pic, and it requires a large table. It was too large to include in the kernel. Since PicPuter can be easily extended using __IRQ_VECTORS__ a keyboard device driver can be written as a separate module.
Support for the PSP port could be added, the PSP allows a PicPuter to easily talk with another CPU. PicPuter would get one address in the CPU memory space. Read or write to the address to communicate with the PicPuter.
Formal I2C Support is something that I will consider. You can write your own I2C support using registers and __IRQ_VECTORS__ in a do it yourself approach.
1 Wire Interface Support, There are some good sensor chips for this interface, it would be good to support it.
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