
GForth EC on PSC1000/ShBoom and others
Quote:
>Hi!
>You will find some status report about the GForth EC development
>together with some demo files at:
>www.jwdt.com/gforth/ec
>Current targets are:
>6502
>C165
>PSC1000
>8086
>bye, Jens Wilke
I bought my PSC1000 (ShBoom) demo board a couple of months ago, with a
view to evaluating the processor for a (not-too-distant) future embedded
project. I was a bit disappointed to find no mention of Forth in the
documentation, even though it's a stack machine - the assembler
mnemonics are documented with stack comments but no mention of the
dreaded F-word. I tried the supplied C compiler. The example ran and
said "Hello, World". I modified this to say "Hello, Keith". My first
real C program and already I was hating it! :-)
Then I downloaded Jens Wilke's Forth demo. Within five minutes I had
made an LED on the output port turn on an off using only a 32bit 40MHz
stack machine and a 200MHz Pentium Pro terminal!!! This would have
taken several man-years in C.
All embedded systems start with an LED being turned on and off. This is
an inviolable law of nature. Tomorrow, the world.
Thanks for the kick-start. I look forward to future developments.
It's notable that while the ShBoom is without doubt a Forth machine,
it's being touted as a Java engine (and supplied with a C compiler). If
this means that it's going to become a large volume established part,
then I'm all for it. Makes you wonder if the marketeers feel that
mentioning Forth would have a negative impact.
[ BTW PSC1000 demo boards are available in the UK from Thame Components
for about UKP200. The processor itself is ridiculously small in a 100
pin PQFP. It's made by NatSemi - this and the packaging imply that
either it's a serious part or somebody's going to lose a lot of money.
The former, IMO. ]
--
Keith Wootten