Issue
139 February 2002
eZ
Embedded Web
by
Tom Cantrell
The
Way of the Web
Internet
enabling embedded gadgets is all the rage, as well it
should be. Sure there are issues such as cost, performance,
reliability, security, and so on. What else is new? The
fact is the ’Net offers compelling accessibility and ease-of-use
advantages that the embedded world can’t ignore. We’re
a long way from pervasive connections, and the journey
from here to there won’t be quick or smooth. But progress
will march on.
When
it comes to getting on the I-way, most of the alternatives
seem to fall into one of two camps. At the high end, there’s
the PC-in-drag approach that relies on 32-bit computer
chips running big-ticket operating systems with megs of
memory. The good news is that these chips and software
already know plenty about the Internet and are comfortable
handling that aspect of the job. On the other hand, notwithstanding
plenty of eye-candy and whizzy stuff like Java, it does
seem like quite a lot of baggage to tote around just to
get a few bytes of data from here to there.
Special-purpose,
Internet-centric add-ons from the likes of iReady and
Connect One or stripped-down mini-me stacks running on
conventional 8-bit MCUs represent the other extreme. Although
these solutions cut the bill of materials, at the least
they sacrifice a measure of functionality and flexibility.
Worst case, they raise the chance of ending up with a
setup that seems to work fine in the lab but chokes when
plugged into a real-world network.
The
eZ80 chip itself splits the difference between traditional
8-bit MCUs and desktop-class computer chips. Most of the
former handle up to 16-bit addressing (maybe, some are
much less) and the latter deal with 32 bits and beyond.
That’s where the eZ80 fits in with a 24-bit take on the
subject.
It’s
no surprise then that the eZ80 web strategy seems to combine
aspects of both the 8- and 32-bit options. It’s definitely
leaner and meaner (and easier on the pocketbook) than
the brute-force 32-bit approach, but more capable and
powerful than a mighty-mouse 8-bit solution.
