We have decided to use the Make Controller from Making Things.The Make Controller Kit is an open source hardware platform for projects requiring high performance control/feedback, connectivity, and ease of use. It can be programmed and run autonomously or used as a peripheral to desktop/laptop applications via the popular OSC protocol.
It is based on the AT91SAM7X256:
The AT91SAM7X256 is a Flash microcontroller with integrated Ethernet, USB and CAN interface, based on the 32-bit ARM7TDMI RISC processor. It features 256K bytes of embedded high-speed Flash with sector lock capabilities and a security bit, and 64K bytes of SRAM. The integrated proprietary SAM-BA Boot Assistant enables in-system programming of the embedded Flash.
Its extensive peripheral set includes a USB 2.0 Full Speed Device Port, Ethernet MAC 10/100 base T, CAN 2.0A and 2.0B compliant Controller, USARTs, SPI, SSC, TWI and an 8-channel 10-bit ADC. Its Peripheral DMA Controller channels eliminate processor bottlenecks during peripheral-to-memory transfers. Its System Controller manages interrupts, clocks, power, time, debug and reset, significantly reducing the external chip count and minimizing power consumption.
In industrial temperature, worse case conditions the maximum clock frequency is 55MHz. Typical core supply is 1.8V, I/Os are supplied at 1.8V or 3.3V and are 5V tolerant. An integrated Voltage Regulator permits single supply at 3.3V. The AT91SAM7X256 is supplied in a 100-lead LQFP Green package. It is supported by an Evaluation Board and extensive application development tools.
The AT91SAM7X256 is a general-purpose microcontroller, particularly suited to real-time embedded control applications that require USB connectivity as well as Ethernet, CAN and/or ZigBee networking.
