IntellaSys Blog

The datasheet indicates 64 words RAM/ 64words ROM per core. Is this correct? It looks that is is too little memory to run applications... and dynamicaly loading user code from the external Flash seems to indicate that there would be performance issues...especially for the one core accessing the memory and its neighbors.[/i]

64 words of RAM and ROM is correct. That’s up to 256 Forth instructions each when using packed stack opcodes. When cooperating with neighbors they can execute port instruction streams which are not limited to 64 words. Functions in ROM like PAUSE and math routines allow for smaller RAM routines.

The key to using small memories is to partition programs so that only some of the Forth words in the program execute on a given core. Dynamically loading code overlays from external Flash or from the external RAM server is slow compared to local memory access and should be minimized when timing is critical. If you think of a core with its CPU and RAM and ROM as being about as expensive as pin or a very short piece of wire the justification for their use as very small piece of an application.