A Comparative Study between two 32-bit microcontrollers - the Atmel AT91SAM3X8E and the Microchip PIC32MX250F128B

A Comparative Study between two 32-bit microcontrollers - the Atmel AT91SAM3X8E and the Microchip PIC32MX250F128B

  January 02, 2014    Tahmid

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As previously mentioned (http://tahmidmc.blogspot.com/2013/09/200000-views-ithaca-arm-and-dmips.html) I’m doing an independent study under the supervision of Professor Bruce Land here at Cornell University. A semester has passed and I will be continuing my independent study next semester.

The independent study (that I'm doing and will be continuing) is on exploring and comparing the peripheral modules of the Microchip PIC32MX250F128B (on the Microstick II platform) and the Atmel AT91SAM3X8E (on the Arduino Due platform). This semester, I've done a good amount of introductory exploration of the two 32-bit microcontrollers.

Here are the links to the datasheets of the two microcontrollers on which my independent study is based:

AT91SAM3X8E: www.atmel.com/Images/doc11057.pdf

PIC32MX250F128B: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/61168E.pdf

The Microchip PIC32MX250F128B is a 32-bit RISC microcontroller based on the MIPS M4K core. In this independent study, I have used the Microstick II platform provided by Microchip.  The  Atmel  AT91SAM3X8E  is  a  32-bit  ARM  microcontroller  based  on  the Cortex-M3 core. In this independent study,  I have used the Arduino Due platform (which is based on the Atmel AT91SAM3X8E microcontroller) provided by Arduino.

Here is the report of my independent study for the first semester, where I have presented my findings and learning:





After writing up the independent study, I have been playing more with both the controllers and experimenting on a bunch of stuff, including (but not limited to) tinkering with different compilers (mikroC PRO for PIC32 and XC32), a mini oscilloscope using the AT91SAM3X8E which I hope to expand into an ECG device, a similar project with the PIC32 and documenting all the different peripherals I'm working on.

I have posted my independent study report in the hope that it will help others who are studying on these two 32-bit controllers (PIC32MX250F128B and AT91SAM3X8E) and hope that it will help them get introduced to the controllers, the two microcontroller series (PIC32 and AT91SAM3) and the corresponding platforms (Microstick II and Arduino Due) mentioned in the independent study report. I will be posting more as I continue my independent study. Please let me know what you think in the comments section below!