RabbitCore RCM2300 Getting Started

1. Introduction & Overview

The RabbitCore RCM2300 is a very small advanced core module that incorporates the powerful Rabbit 2000™ microprocessor, flash memory, static RAM, and digital I/O ports, all on a PCB that is just 1.15" × 1.60" (29.2 mm × 40.6 mm).

1.1 RCM2300 Description

The RCM2300 is a very small core module that packs the processing power of a Rabbit 2000™ microprocessor into 1.84 square inches (11.9 cm²). Two 26-pin headers bring out the Rabbit 2000 I/O bus lines, address lines, data lines, parallel ports, and serial ports.

The RCM2300 receives its +5 V power from the user board on which it is mounted. The RCM2300 can interface with all kinds of CMOS-compatible digital devices through the user board.

The RCM2300 takes full advantage of the following Rabbit 2000 and other built-in features:

• fast, efficient instruction set.

• five 8-bit timers cascadable in pairs, one 10-bit timer with 2 match registers that each have an interrupt.

• watchdog timer.

• 57 I/O (including general-purpose I/O, address lines, data lines, and control lines on headers, and 11 I/O on through-hole connectors).

• 256K of nonvolatile flash memory to store applications written for the RCM2300.

• 128K of battery-backable SRAM.

• fast 22.1 MHz clock speed.

• provision for onboard backup battery.

• four serial ports.

Another RabbitCore module can be used to reprogram an RCM2300. This reprogramming (and debugging) can be done via the Internet using Z-World's RabbitLink network programming gateway or with Ethernet-equipped RabbitCore modules using Dynamic C's DeviceMate features.

1.1.1 Other Factory Versions

To accommodate developers with specific needs, alternate versions of the RCM2300 module can be obtained in production quantities on special order.

Low-power variants of the RCM2300 running at 3.686 MHz and 3.3 V can be custom made in quantity. The clock can be changed dynamically to any one of five frequencies as low as 32 kHz to reduce power consumption even further.

1.1.2 Physical & Electrical Specifications

Table 1 lists the basic specifications for the RCM2300.

Table 1. Basic RCM2300 Specifications 

Specification	Data
Power Supply	4.75 – 5.25 VDC (108 mA at 22.1 MHz clock speed)
Size	1.15" × 1.60" × 0.55" (29 mm × 41 mm × 14 mm)
Environmental	–40°C to 85°C, 5–95% humidity, noncondensing

NOTE	For complete product specifications, see Appendix A in the RabbitCore RCM2300 User's Manual.

The RCM2300 modules have two 26-pin headers to which cables can be connected, or which can be plugged into matching sockets on a production device. The pinouts for these connectors are shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. RCM2300 Pinout

Fifteen additional connection points are available along one edge of the RCM2300 board. These connection points are 0.030" diameter holes spaced 0.05" apart. Nineteen additional connection points are available at locations J2 and J3. These additional connection points are reserved for future use.

1.2 Development Software

The RCM2300 uses the Dynamic C development environment for rapid creation and debugging of runtime applications. Dynamic C provides a complete development environment with integrated editor, compiler and source-level debugger. It interfaces directly with the target system, eliminating the need for complex and unreliable in-circuit emulators.

Dynamic C must be installed on a Windows workstation with at least one free serial (COM) port for communication with the target system. See Chapter 3, "Software Installation & Overview," for complete information on installing Dynamic C.

NOTE	The RCM2300 requires Dynamic C v7.04 or later for development. A compatible version is included on the Development Kit CD-ROM.

1.3 How to Use This Manual

This Getting Started manual is intended to give users a quick but solid start with the RCM2300 module.

1.3.1 Additional Product Information

Detailed information about the RabbitCore RCM2300 is provided in the RabbitCore RCM2300 User's Manual provided on the accompanying CD-ROM in both HTML and Adobe PDF format.

Some advanced users may choose to skip the rest of this introductory manual and proceed directly with the detailed hardware and software information in the User's manual.

NOTE	We recommend that anyone not thoroughly familiar with Rabbit Semiconductor or Z-World products at least read through the rest of this manual to gain the necessary familiarity to use the more advanced information.

1.3.2 Additional Reference Information

In addition to the product-specific information contained in the RabbitCore RCM2300 User's Manual, two other reference manuals are provided in HTML and PDF form on the accompanying CD-ROM. Advanced users will find these references valuable in developing systems based on the RCM2300.

• Dynamic C User's Manual

• Rabbit 2000 Microprocessor User's Manual

1.3.3 Using Online Documentation

We provide the bulk of our user and reference documentation in two electronic formats, HTML and Adobe PDF. We do this for several reasons.

We believe that providing all users with our complete library of product and reference manuals is a useful convenience. However, printed manuals are expensive to print, stock and ship. Rather than include and charge for manuals that every user may not want, or provide only product-specific manuals, we choose to provide our complete documentation and reference library in electronic form with every development kit and with our Dynamic C development environment.

NOTE	The most current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader can always be downloaded from Adobe's web site at http://www.adobe.com. We recommend that you use version 4.0 or later.

Providing this documentation in electronic form saves an enormous amount of paper by not printing copies of manuals that users don't need.

Finding Online Documents

The online documentation is installed along with Dynamic C, and an icon for the documentation menu is placed on the workstation's desktop. Double-click this icon to reach the menu. If the icon is missing, create a new desktop icon that points to default.htm in the docs folder, found in the Dynamic C installation folder.

The latest versions of all documents are always available for free, unregistered download from our Web site as well.

Printing Electronic Manuals

We recognize that many users prefer printed manuals for some uses. Users can easily print all or parts of those manuals provided in electronic form. The following guidelines may be helpful:

• Print from the Adobe PDF versions of the files, not the HTML versions.

• If your printer supports duplex printing, print pages double-sided.

• If you do not have a suitable printer or do not want to print the manual yourself, most retail copy shops (e.g. Kinkos, CopyMax, AlphaGraphics, etc.) will print the manual from the PDF file and bind it for a reasonable charge—about what we would have to charge for a printed and bound manual.