This is a late submission of the micro proc/controller journal.
The microcontroller I chose is a Parallax P8x32A chip, which is a multi-core 32bit RISC CPU with 8 cores. Each of the 8 32bit cores has a CPU which accesses 512 32 bit ‘long words’ instructions and data. Shared memory is set at 32kb RAM and 32kb ROM.
The cool thing about the Parallax is that it can be clocked internally, or eternally via a crystal or resonator, taking the effective clock rate from 32kHz up to 80Mhz. Thermal stability can be an issue if taken too high. Another important feature of course is power consumption; to achieve a lower state of power usage the clock rate may be lowered, and individual “cogs” (CPUs) can be turned off.
There are some interesting implementations of this architecture, such as the “micromedic kit with board of education shield” which can be used for a variety of interesting medical/simulation projects. For example, one may use the embedded pressure sensor to get data from the hand held nebulizer, or the display may be configured to take data from the heart rate receiver. It even comes with an attachment that can read pH strips and a Hall effect sensor (which detects the voltage difference from induction I believe, can detect proximity of magnets and is used for timing motors, etc)
