ALC Development System SummaryDue to its many capabilities, ALC development is potentially complex. The ALC Development Systems include the cost of program development tools, I/O driver libraries, and technical support. The OEM systems do not include these. You must purchase a development version of ALC before you purchase OEM systems. Fundamental I/O drivers (ADC, DAC, clock and calendar, RS232, etc) are included with the development kit. Other drivers are considerably more involved (MicroLan) and are optional. You may wish to use your own code to support some ALC I/O devices, and in other cases (RS485 networks for example) Systronix does not offer support - we refer you to a number of third parties. All the I/O devices and their support are detailed in this table. The point of all this is to make development with ALC as reasonable and affordable as we can. If you have special needs please contact us - we will try to accomodate you. |
|
ALC Language Support |
|
| BCI51 compiled BASIC | We have developed and beta-tested an extensive set of I/O drivers and sample programs for use with the Systronix BCI51 real-time BASIC compiler. |
| Assembly Code | In theory you could program ALC all in assembly code, but it would be a lot of work. However, if you wish to do this, all the compiled BASIC I/O driver files are written in hand-optimized assembly code wrapped in a BASIC shell. They can easily be converted to pure assembly code. |
| Keil C | We have and use the Keil 8051 professional development kit. At this time we have not created a C development solution for ALC. You could take the BASIC/assembly code I/O drivers and modify them to work with Keil C. We could be persuaded to do this as a custom development project. |
ALC I/O Device & Support ListPDF files for all available manufacturer's data sheets, and ALC schematics are included with the Systronix CDROM which ships with all ALC Development Systems. |
|
| 12-bit ADC | BCI51 example program and I/O driver include file to use 12-bit, 11-channel TLC2543 analog-to-digital converter. |
| 12-bit DAC | BCI51 example program and I/O driver include file to use the dual 12-bit, LTC1451 digital-to-analog converters. |
| DataFlash Logging Memory | BCI51 example program and I/O driver include file to use the 4 megabit Atmel AT45D041 DataFlash Logging memory. |
| on-board digital I/O | BCI51 example programs are included which access the on-board digital I/O of ALC. |
| Clock and Calendar | BCI51 example program and support for the Dallas DS1284 embedded clock and calendar chip. Accesses the time and alarm functions and shows how to put ALC to sleep and wake it up with a periodic alarm. |
| CAN Interface | Uses the Philips SJA1000 CAN controller chip. This is an optional support module available from several sources. We may make a support module available in the near future. |
| iButton - DOW - MicroLan | iButton, DOW and MicroLan all use the same prototocol. Limited support from Systronix is available now for BCI51 and assy code programs. Complete C language support TMEX driver (not free) is available from the Dallas iButton group. Systronix is developing a High Speed Micro iButton support module for 8051s, written in assembly code, which scales itself to any controller crystal. Email us if you are interested and to find out the current status. |
| RS-232 serial I/O | Sample assembly code and BCI51 programs are available now from Systronix. BCI51 currently supports the default 8051 UART on ALC with ring-buffered, interrupt-driven serial I/O. We provide assembly code programs which initialize and write to both UARTs. We have not done example multi-drop RS232 programs yet. |
| RS-485 serial I/O | You can roll your own (many of our customers have successfully done this), or purchase RS485 support from a variety of sources such as Cimetrics. Systronix currently has no plans to offer RS485 firmware support. |
| SBX support | The SBX connector is simply a memory-mapped area. We provide sample programs for the Systronix SBX boards. Writing your own is easy - it's just a data read or write at the SBX address space. |
ALC Development Systems & Options |
|
| ALC-DEV-BCI51 |
Hardware includes ALC board, 12V 1A power cube, SBX1 board, 20x4 LCD, 4x4 Keypad, CAN connector board for twisted pair cable, and serial cable kit. You can purchase additional development systems and/or portions thereof (extra ALC boards for example) at a special price if you order it all at the same time. Firmware includes BCI51-Pro BASIC compiler, and support for ADC, DAC, DataFlash, Clock and Calendar, SBX, LCD, keypad, digital I/O, RS232, DS1820 temp sensor (non-networked iButton). Does not include CAN or complete iButton network support. A discount is available if you already own a current copy of BCI51 Pro. |
| ALC-DEV-IBUTTON | License to use the Systronix iButton support files. Includes 8051 assembly code source with RAD51 project definitions, and sample programs in assembly code and BCI51 BASIC. Under development now, partially complete, expect to begin release sometime 4Q99. Price to be determined. |
| ALC-BATT | Optional 6 C-cell alkaline battery pack and plastic enclosure, with one end panel 9200. |