The idea of creating debug microcontrollers, in which the pins would have set-diodes that would display the process of data exchange.

[ssm]

I had an idea for debug microcontrollers, so that there were microcontrollers with a light display of the receive-transmit channel. Such chips will be in the category of debug chips, when a circuit is being developed and it is much easier for the code to. When there are many microcontrollers in operation on a single-wire protocol and each with its own external functions, then heaps of wires and external LED displays become inconvenient. And everything is so compact and clear.

And this is an example of the rgb version of displaying data exchange processes.

[Peter BENSCH]

If I understand your idea correctly, you would like to suggest an MCU that has a built-in RGB LED on each pin?

Very good, but who should pay for it:

• 3 LED chips per pin
• current limiting resistors
• light windows per LED?
• How is that supposed to fit into very small packages?

Where should the power loss of the series resistors be dissipated?

Will also be difficult to squeeze 225 RGB LEDs into a BGA, for example.

How should you operate LEDs when you work with 1.62V and LEDs rarely have a forward voltage drop of less than 2V today?

Hmm, sounds like a good idea, but it probably isn't really feasible.

Regards

/Peter

[ssm]

This is for TTL chips. The rgb version might be too tricky. I gave the second option as an example. If there is a smd solution, then micro smd execution may appear. The buyer will pay. Debug chips, project formation always contains many searches for why it does not work. Visibility helps a lot to understand the possible cause. In addition, if the versions are ~ 0.25mm ... 0.5mm in size and fit into the chip casing during manufacture. It will cost more, but it is more convenient to work with. Time is money.

[ssm]

And if we expand the idea to additional conclusions that could be used for debugging and outputting the entire exchange flow to a computer, through a high-speed usb or another channel, so that the computer becomes a digital oscilloscope, so that it is possible, like snapshots, to consider the general signal flow as on an ECG, and see the wrong places. The class of new products is debug chips with additional hardware functions. Not separate boards that are inconvenient, but everything in a chip. So that these debug pins are on top of the chip case, so that they do not interfere with the installation of the chip in the panel. Contacts in the form of indentations in the case, for example 4x4, attached a block of contacts and the flow went to the computer.

[ssm]

Chips have become more complex, programs are larger, and bugs at the hardware level are sometimes hard to find. Debug chips should help reduce development time. Errors are time-consuming. High clock speeds are almost impossible to keep track of.

[MM..1]

Sorry ssm, but your idea is only for very basic systems , when speed signals change go up, your eye on led cant handle it.

But i see one way for nucleo board over nucleo board, and one connected board equiped with special monitoring sw. Maybe is usable , but all end in debuging and handle errors , yhis is proggrammer work.

[Tesla DeLorean]

There's no interest in this type of method/debugging, there are far better ways to achieve this than eye-balling LEDs at a rate humans can perceive them.

Why couldn't you just attach a trace-pod and understand the dynamic flow from that? Put some test pads on then back side of the PCB.

About 99.99999% of the IC's produced never see a debugger, the economics of doing this just aren't there, because it's a game of very large numbers.

It's not the 1960's, this is not how engineers code and debug in 2021

[ssm]

You are correct in your segment of the vision of tasks.

1. Not everything has to be dificult!

2. There are many tasks that are simple and functional, do not require quantum computing or tasks of the level of quantum physics.

3. Debug and development boards are not cheap, not in all countries people can afford to buy such boards.

4. Demand would be greater if it were easier porous and affordable development tools. The level of debug microcontrollers, with physical parallel output of signals to a computer, would be very convenient. It's simple and intuitive. Overlay two "cardiograms" of two chips to see which one is behaving faster / slower. The microcontroller could be transferred step by step to any clock frequency in order to see the logic step by step on the LEDs, how the exchange signals go.

5. Debug microcontrollers are the future solution to the problem of landfills, saving copper, tin, epoxy resins and paints. The ability to produce many more chips for the same volumes of copper and other metals. This is the right future.

[ssm]

When the market is determined by specialists in the field, it is a form of monopoly, as a result fewer people can afford it. Availability and convenience are the main rules for attractive products. Complexity pushes people away, so demand is lost.

[Nikita91]

I don't agree, reality shows the opposite. STM32H7s are extremely complex, but the demand is so high that they are out of stock ...