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Comment by mikewarot | Hacker News Reader

I looked at the specs, I didn't see a dedicated processor doing the Ladder Logic / Modules part. Perhaps they dedicate one core to it... but that's a lot more janky than a separate CPU at about a dollar or two.

I wouldn't want WiFi, Ethernet, or any other IO crashing the Controller. It has to be rock solid.

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Being marketed as an IIoT device differentiates it from classical "mission critical/rock solid" PLC modules I guess. Treat it as an Arduino with WiF and Ethernet but with friendly screw terminals and connectors instead of needing a shield for interfacing te traditional sensors and actuators. And with an woefully overpowered microcontroller.

Hi the main processor is made of 2 separate cores and they can run different software. The processor we use it's the top of the line for STM so it's not a dollar or two. The separation between the two cores is much more well defined that people might think. The Wifi BT is managed by a separate module with its own separate processor (The Wifi/BT is also optional on most models)

> The separation between the two cores is much more well defined that people might think.

What separation do you think there is? The M7 and M4 cores on a dual-core STM32H7 share all of their peripherals and memory (with the exception of CCM and I$/D$ on the M7). There is virtually no separation between them; they can even run the exact same code with a bit of wrangling. There isn't even any provision for firewalling the two off from each other.

If you were planning on treating the fact that the part had two cores as a safety feature, you need to reconsider that.

The STM32 series don't have any BLE/WiFi solutions built in yet. Since it's "Arduino" I assume it's a NINA module or similar from u-blox as a "co-processor" over UART with an AT command interface, which is basically a brandlabeled ESP32 with some firmware enhancements they already use on other products that focus on IoT.

it's not an ESP32 it's an high quality Murata/Cypress module this is the datasheet https://content.arduino.cc/assets/Arduino-Portenta-H7_Datash...

Good to know, so it's something to avoid. I had to deal with a lot of the wireless modules from Infineon and let's just say the support was ... hm, I guess terrible would be a pretty mild term in that regard.

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