LP CPU?

misterhemi · Post by **misterhemi** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:59 pm

Good question.

It seems these days there is some type of C complier for almost every microcontroller/CPU.

I don't know about Moog but if I recall Dave Smith uses a DSP chip and I believe a PIC as the CPU (microcontroller). Moog probably uses something similar as synths, in general, don't need massive/major processing capabilities unless you are generating the sounds entirely digitally and in many cases a DSP chip is all that is needed.

The Alesis ION uses a few simple but proprietary DSP chips and D/A converters to generate the sounds and a Cold Fire processor for the controls.

They own WaveFront semiconductors (formerly Alesis semiconductors, see the story here)

Now, if I could only learn the layout software I have (Douglas Pro Layout) I could finish some of the projects I started

BTW anyone know of a way to interface I2S devices to a Cold Fire MCF5475EC????

electrical_engineer_gEEk · Post by **electrical_engineer_gEEk** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 12:44 am

i opened it up the other day and saw that it was an 8051 microcontroller

misterhemi · Post by **misterhemi** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 9:09 pm

electrical_engineer_gEEk wrote:i opened it up the other day and saw that it was an 8051 microcontroller

I hope you're joking!

But I suppose you really don't need much processing power since the sounds are purely analog and the digital aspect of it is just for MIDI, patch storage and the controls.

But an 8051?

electrical_engineer_gEEk · Post by **electrical_engineer_gEEk** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:39 am

do you really need photographic proof?...cuz i have it!
no joke!

misterhemi · Post by **misterhemi** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:18 am

electrical_engineer_gEEk wrote:do you really need photographic proof?...cuz i have it!
no joke!

I believe you... but.... WOW that has been around forever!

Amos · Post by **Amos** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:15 am

You can do a lot of analog with not very much digital horsepower... the Voyager runs off a Z180!

misterhemi · Post by **misterhemi** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:43 am

Amos wrote:You can do a lot of analog with not very much digital horsepower... the Voyager runs off a Z180!

Interesting.... I forget what the differences are with the Z180 versus the Z80.

I have many Z-80's that I use just for various projects.

I know I can go to Zilog's web site and see but I assume the Z-180 has a small amount of built-in RAM?

Interesting choices of CPU's!

Amos · Post by **Amos** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:06 pm

hemi: I think that's right; I've also seen it called a Z-80+. So it's basically a slightly souped-up Z80 (which still isn't very much soup, by today's standards). It can handle a lot of control voltages at a good clip, though, because we're not asking it to do a whole lot of math on the signals it gets in and out. Sometimes sweet and simple is the way to go.

grantb5 · Post by **grantb5** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:49 pm

electrical_engineer_gEEk wrote:do you really need photographic proof?...cuz i have it!
no joke!

Ooooh.. I do! I do! Feel free to email or PM me.

dave500 · Post by **dave500** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:24 pm

I've never seen inside... Post a picture or two please.

Solenoid · Post by **Solenoid** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 5:11 pm

A little phatty owner has posted this before...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VMCijPZiLU

..its not so amazing inside IMO...i can distinguish a very little analog board and a big one that seems like digital (or non discrete anyway)...probably the big board is for the controls and the software whereas the little one is the voice board...nothing so special...i thought that it had fewer electronic parts compared to a voyager, but this is so smaller!!!

..its almost disappointing

Mine will arrive in almost 2 weeks and i had in my mind to mod it with a plexiglass "window" so its "guts" could be seen...but, i don't think it anymore...

P.S. Thanks to Canecreek for showing us the "surgery" procedure!

dave500 · Post by **dave500** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:54 pm

Thanks Solenoid