REXIS (V2): The Subsumption Architecture OS

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Subsumption Architecture was defined by MIT’s Rodney Brooks as a new method of building intelligent systems based on reactive behavior based control. While 20+ years later, the promise of the subsumption architecture has not produced an intelligent robot yet (although I suppose we don’t *really* know the full capability of the PackBots used by the military 🙂 ), the subsumption architecture remains an enticing theory for building control systems. With the ever increasing use of embedded micrcontrollers and sensors, the subsumption architecture becomes an appealing choice for such system due to the following properties: The architecture is inherently multiple process […]

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Guitar Hero and the ImageCraft AVR C Compiler

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One of the hottest console games currently is Guitar Hero. It’s hugely entertaining and you get to enjoy some good music. On the downside, it doesn’t have anything to do with playing real guitar per se as the primary task is to push the right buttons as shown on the screen. To address these shortcomings, Zivix has developed a guitar with an Atmel ATMega168. The designer, Dan Sullivan,  says We have been using the Imagecraft C compiler for the Atmel AVR for many years, and it has been a great workhorse for code development. We use an Atmel MEGA168, so

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In the Beginning…

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Our first compiler product was a low cost ($39!!!) C compiler for the HC11. The ’11 was great for its time: the documentation is a standard that most CURRENT microcontroller documents could take lessons from; the chip was easy to use, even in the era of burning your own EEPROM and erasing them using UV light, and the HC11 E2 was a charmer since it has its own builtin 2K of EEPROM, back in the late 80s! But I digress, ImageCraft had an earlier beginning. Back in the days when I was in the graduate school, I got very interested

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The Cypress PSoC C Compiler Saga

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Some people may wonder about our Cypress PSoC C compiler plan. The original plan from a couple years ago was to release our PRO compiler, significantly increase the performance of the compiler. During the last couple years though, many unexpected factors came into play, but before we discuss the future, lets visit the past. At the early 2000s, Cypress MicroSystems (CMS) was a small company with a big plan. Its idea of reconfigurable analog and digital blocks coupled with a MCU gave it a unique entry to the competitive microcontroller market place. Backing CMS was the Cypress fab, allowing CMS

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Development Plan

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One of the clear demands from the comments to our prior posts is that we should concentrate on delivering great compilers. I thought I’d lay out our primary development plan for the next 6 months, in increasing order of priority: Expand Our Offerings – microcontroller dominance comes and goes. 8051, HC11, PIC16, AVR are some of the most popular 8 bits controllers in their times. To remain competitive, we need to monitor the next greatest hit. With 32 bits controllers coming down in prices and gaining in features, it’s natural that we move into that segment of the market, as

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