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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Propellerizaton

Propellerized Big Brain DBA Direct Board Access
PROPELLERIZE YOUR BIG BRAIN

Hey, even if your big brain (or multi prop project) is a congenial mix of parallel processors, there's still a way to pump out more use from the same circuits.

This experiment looks at the Propeller Big Brain in a new way. Existing Propeller chips within the Big Brain are wired for specific purpose. A board may have TV or VGA out, while another board may have more RAM, SD Card, or large EEPROM. There's a variety of boards too, like the Propeller Demo board, Propeller Proto board, and even the full featured Hydra board. Then, there's arrays upon arrays of our own flavored propeller solderless breadboards (now known as Giant Boards) and specific config boards.

For testing and developing, we may want to isolate these particular boards and resources without going through the entire Big Brain's numerous Propeller circuits every time we need new code. For example, not every bit of written code requires a parallel process.

The solution is to "Propellerize" the Big Brain by resource mapping and creating access points to individual boards.

Although every processor can be an access point, this form of Propellerization will possibly include just the boards. Mapping out the boards will be an exciting process because the rewards will include more effective programming, more efficient accessing, a wider variety of singular applications, and faster testing.

This technique also works well for testing pre-existing code, as most code written is specific board dependency in regard to pin numbers and resources.

POINTS OF PROPELLERIZATION
  • Propeller Boards
  • Host Boards
  • Processor Groupings
  • Function Groupings 
  • Mouse
  • Keyboard
  • LEDs
  • Metered Sections
  • Pre-existing Code
  • Memory
  • Processors
  • RAM
  • ROM
  • EEPROM
  • SD-CARD
  • Sound Out
  • Sound In
  • Speakers
  • Sensors
  • Wireless
  • Video
  • (TV)
  • (VGA)
  • Interface
  • Serial Communications
  • Game Paddles
  • Functions