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h1. Propeller Microcontroller

The Propeller is a multi-core microcontroller by Parallax.


h2. Specs

* 8 cores (cogs)
* 32-bit architecture
* Max clock speed 80MHz (note that Spin code executes much slower than this)
* Each core has 2K SRAM for programs and data
* 32KB EEPROM used to store programs
* Programmable by serial interface
* VGA output


h2. Windows development tools

* "Parallax home page":http://parallax.com
* "Wikispaces Propeller Wiki, lots of useful info":http://propeller.wikispaces.com
* "Wikipedia entry, good detail":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_Propeller

h2. Languages

The Propeller can be programmed in assembler or Spin.  There are also third party C compilers available.

h3. Assembler

The Propeller has a small instruction set and is well documented in the Propeller manual.

h3. Spin

A bytecode interpreted language by Parallax.  Most of the high level libraries are written in Spin.  Each cog can fit a copy of the interpreter in its SRAM, but bytecode is read from hub memory which slows down execution.  See the wikipedia page for details.

* "BST":http://www.fnarfbargle.com/bst.html (Brad's Spin Tool) is a cross-platform tool suite for developing Spin programs.

h3. C

There are two C implementations

* "Imagecraft":http://www.imagecraft.com make a commercial compiler, $99 for non-commercial use
* "Catalina":http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=339139 is an open source compiler currently in beta.  It is based on the lcc compiler and comes with a complete ieee floating point implementation

h3. Other open/free development tools

* "Program loader script (python, requires pyserial)":http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=161911
* "Homespun Spin compiler":http://propeller.wikispaces.com/Homespun+Spin+Compiler
* Propasm - Propeller assembler, written in Java

h2. Docs

* "Documentation including Propeller manual, board schematics, lab exercises. (10MB)":http://www.expandingbrain.com/PropellerDocs.zip
* "Propeller protobard designs for the beginner":http://ucontroller.com/Propeller%20Protoboard%20Designs%20for%20the%20Beginner.pdf

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