1k of Program Space, 64 bytes of RAM. Is assembly an absolute must?
- by Earlz
(If your lazy see bottom for TL;DR)
Hello, I am planning to build a new (prototype) project dealing with physical computing. Basically, I have wires. These wires all need to have their voltage read at the same time. More than a few hundred microseconds difference between the readings of each wire will completely screw it up. The Arduino takes about 114 microseconds. So the most I could read is 2 or 3 wires before the latency would skew the accuracy of the readings.
So my plan is to have an Arduino as the "master" of an array of ATTinys. The arduino is pretty cramped for space, but it's a massive playground compared to the tinys. An ATTiny13A has 1k of flash ROM(program space), 64 bytes of RAM, and 64 bytes of (not-durable and slow) EEPROM. (I'm choosing this for price as well as size)
The ATTinys in my system will not do much. Basically, all they will do is wait for a signal from the Master, and then read the voltage of 1 or 2 wires and store it in RAM(or possibly EEPROM if it's that cramped). And then send it to the Master using only 1 wire for data.(no room for more than that!).
So far then, all I should have to do is implement trivial voltage reading code (using built in ADC). But this communication bit I'm worried about. Do you think a communication protocol(using just 1 wire!) could even be implemented in such constraints?
TL;DR: In less than 1k of program space and 64 bytes of RAM(and 64 bytes of EEPROM) do you think it is possible to implement a 1 wire communication protocol? Would I need to drop to assembly to make it fit?
I know that currently my Arduino programs linking to the Wiring library are over 8k, so I'm a bit concerned.
