[Asterisk-Users] Special Delivery from China

[Steve Underwood]

Andrew Kohlsmith wrote:

>On Thursday 01 July 2004 01:19, Jay Milk wrote:
>  
>
>>That would be a great alternative.  For what it's worth, the phone is
>>based on a PA1688 single-chip VOIP terminal, which in turn contains a
>>50MHz 8051-compatible and a ADSP2181 DSP running at 33MHz.  The Sound
>>interface is AC97 compatible, the network interface is NE2000 compatible
>>(RTL8019 chip), running only 10mbps.  For what it's worth, I was able to
>>determine that they're using VC6 and KeilC51 (?) to cross-compile.
>>    
>>
>
>Hmmm... 8051s are kind of stink IMO but they are EVERYWHERE.  And I actually 
>have an Analog Devices ADSP2183 reference design in my basement, complete 
>with compilers and debuggers and all that fun stuff.  Win32 only of 
>course. :-(
>  
>
A kind of wacky chip. The 8051 is like a festering wart on the side of 
an ADI DSP core :-) It doesn't seem that suitable for a VoIP phone, as 
it offers little integration. Other people are making VoIP chips with 
the ethernet, and even the analogue interfaces, built in - TI, agere, 
you name it.

There are freely available 2181 assembly language tools on Linux. I 
don't think there is a free C compiler, though.

This is a Chinese chip, and in China every engineering student studies 
the 8051 like it is the world's most wonderful processor. Using it is a 
no-brainer.

I wonder how free of litigation worries this chip might be. ADI is 
currently in dispute over more than one Chinese chip which appears to be 
a rip off, rather than an independantly implemented compatible part.

Regards,
Steve