The MSP432P401RIRGC is an ARM Cortex M4F processor. It has a web based IDE (integrated development environment). It has six serial communication modules and runs up to 48 MHz. This chip started out looking good, however it doesn’t look very good after a little bit of research. A quick look back at the Microchip processor (Processor Option 2) showed me that this processor is probably not a good fit for this design. Unless I eliminate the other processor options, I will not use this chip. The chip not being available yet plays a large part of this decision. If it becomes available before I start prototyping, I may change my mind.
Side Note:
For my abbreviations I will always use an upper case B to represent bytes and a lower case b to represent bits. For instance 1,000 bytes will be represented as 1 KB and 1,000,000 bits will be represented at 1 Mb.
MSP432P401RIRGC
Device Advantages
- SPI up to 16Mbps with DMA
- 256 KB Flash code space
- 64 KB RAM space (16 bit address pointers are very easy to work with in C)
Device Disadvantages
- Not available yet
- Large pin count (64 pin for smallest variant)
- No DIP part for prototyping
- US $5.59 in quantities of 1K (Kind of high) may come down when released.