In a nutshell, FURS provides the same kind of Cortex-M embedded capability for Mecrisp-Stellaris that Headers provide to the C programming language, namely the knowledge of the peripherals inside any STM32xx MCU.
It works by utilising the information contained in CMSIS-SVD files.
Now, Terry, that is quite something !
Pretty much explains why there were not so many updates on your Mecrisp Stellaris and Across folkdoc pages (or I didn't notice the ones that are there but buried deep inside). In a month or so I should have some spare time to invest in to my little Mecrisp Forth project and this work of yours surely will come very handy. I notice a few oddities like duplicated menu entry for the Wiki which are different Wikis in fact but it is possible I am too picky and do not understand the menu structure properly. All in all, a big thank you to you.
Cheers,
Maciek
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My old site hasn't been updated for a long time because of a hardware failure I had after the last update, so I rebuilt a new PC and haven't retrieved the SF backups yet as they are in a ZFS file system.
In the meantime I was exploring AI and finishing FURS, so you surmised.
I haven't had any feedback yet on FURS, and there are bound to be plenty of errors, I'll correct them as I become aware.
Note:
Plus with Mecrisp-Stellaris being end-of-lifed by Matthias, I won't be putting much effort into my old web site now, and I think that is fitting as that era is over.
But I will be more project active than ever, with a totally new system, as every new project will be released as a Fossil DCVS repository file, just like FURS is.
In other words, all the doc, the code, the pics, flowcharts etc will be in the one one Fossil repo which also has a webserver, so it won't need replicating on my old website which will just have a brief description and the repo link ready for download.
That means anyone wanting to build any of my projects will have exactly the same repo I used to create them.
Cheers,
terry
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Hi Terry,
so it looks like the time has come for me to get a RP2350 pico or alike board and try Mecrisp Quintus on the cheap.
But that only after I have spent some time playing with your FURS. Paradoxically, Mecrisp maturity and cessation of its active development may actually increase its use in projects. One doesn't need to look for new updates but can focus on the task at hand instead. I find myself struggling with the habit of frequent checks for the new updates and now this time can be better used. Or so I hope. Time will tell.
Cheers,
Maciek
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Happy to read you both are having fun, and I am glad you take the stable base of Mecrisp-Stellaris without planned further enhancements as a rock solid ground for your own creativity. I worked on it for more than a decade, and be sure, if you find a bug, I am there to fix it.
For me, both my hobby and my professional work happens on FPGAs now. I could have written an ARM Cortex M0 compatible softcore to continue using Mecrisp-Stellaris, but ARM is legally hostile against open source softcores implementing their instruction set, yielding its patent sword in sneaky ways to get rid of these efforts on FPGAs. With the RISC-V ecosystem being friendly and growing, I changed ships, and put my effort and focus into this upcoming architecture.
While I still have an eye on what cool features new microcontrollers come up with, I feel like I saw too many different chips on my bench...
Last month, I wished to play with my old love, the MSP430, and created the FemtoMSP430, a processor implementation designed with the instruction set of the classic MSP430, but with a flexible bus interface including busy signaling to connect it with video hardware and possibly other creative uses. The playground contains a phantasy "microcontroller" design for the ULX3S FPGA board, interactively running the original Mecrisp Forth image for MSP430G2755, enhanced with a text mode on 800x600 video, USB-CDC terminal and a lot of GPIO wires: https://codeberg.org/Mecrisp/FemtoMSP430
Matthias
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I have an ULX3S with an ECP5 85F, but the design will fit in the smaller ones, too, if you change the nextpnr-ecp5 invocation to yours.
Note that you'll get much better performance for less resource usage if you use Mecrisp-Quintus or Mecrisp-Ice on the same target, as their respective processor cores are more optimised and need less cycles per instruction than the freshly baked, still experimental FemtoMSP430.
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@m-atthias Will your FemtoMSP430 code in codeberg.org be workable in other ECP5 board like Colorlight or Muse ICE-Sugar Pro with the same Lattice LFE5U fpga chip ?
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The design uses HDMI video out and USB lines directly connected to the FPGA, which is not the same as HUB75 attached LED panels and ethernet on the Colorlight, and it will require porting effort until you get a nice terminal on your blazingly bright LED wall :-) The other board has HDMI on the breakout maybe? The FemtoMSP430 processor core itself should be quite independent regarding the actual FPGA, just like the FemtoRV32.
By the way... Unless you are a big fan of the MSP430 instruction set, make sure to check out the RISC-V designs as included in Mecrisp-Quintus for various FPGA boards, also including VGA graphics options. For driving HUB75 panels, however, you'll probably have to write your own logic to push pixels...
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Hi Matthias!
The decade you spent on Mecrisp_Stellaris resulted in the most complete, stable and incredibly useful embedded Forth I've ever used. I plan to be using it until I'm too old to type :)
I understand the commercial nature of ARM and the restrictions, and personally it never mattered to me because I can buy $0.60 STM32G0 MCU's with 64KB flash etc, which do everything I need.
Mecrisp-Stellaris will still be as useful in 2030 on a STM32F051 as it was in 2014 :)
Thank you again for Mecrisp-Stellaris, because in my opinion, you left the world a better place for all your hard work, and I expect there will never be another Forth anything like it..
many, many thanks for your very kind reply! I am glad you joined the project in its earliest stages, and I hope Mecrisp-Stellaris will continue to serve you well.
Matthias
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
In a nutshell, FURS provides the same kind of Cortex-M embedded capability for Mecrisp-Stellaris that Headers provide to the C programming language, namely the knowledge of the peripherals inside any STM32xx MCU.
It works by utilising the information contained in CMSIS-SVD files.
Howto:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mecrisp-stellarisfolkdoc/files/furs.fossil.howto.md/download
Fossil Repo:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mecrisp-stellaris-folkdoc/files/furs.fossil/download (under 5mb)
Cheers,
Terry
Last edit: Terry Porter 2025-10-27
Now, Terry, that is quite something !
Pretty much explains why there were not so many updates on your Mecrisp Stellaris and Across folkdoc pages (or I didn't notice the ones that are there but buried deep inside). In a month or so I should have some spare time to invest in to my little Mecrisp Forth project and this work of yours surely will come very handy. I notice a few oddities like duplicated menu entry for the Wiki which are different Wikis in fact but it is possible I am too picky and do not understand the menu structure properly. All in all, a big thank you to you.
Cheers,
Maciek
Hi Maciek, thanks for the kind words :)
My old site hasn't been updated for a long time because of a hardware failure I had after the last update, so I rebuilt a new PC and haven't retrieved the SF backups yet as they are in a ZFS file system.
In the meantime I was exploring AI and finishing FURS, so you surmised.
I haven't had any feedback yet on FURS, and there are bound to be plenty of errors, I'll correct them as I become aware.
Note:
Plus with Mecrisp-Stellaris being end-of-lifed by Matthias, I won't be putting much effort into my old web site now, and I think that is fitting as that era is over.
But I will be more project active than ever, with a totally new system, as every new project will be released as a Fossil DCVS repository file, just like FURS is.
In other words, all the doc, the code, the pics, flowcharts etc will be in the one one Fossil repo which also has a webserver, so it won't need replicating on my old website which will just have a brief description and the repo link ready for download.
That means anyone wanting to build any of my projects will have exactly the same repo I used to create them.
Cheers,
terry
Hi Terry,
so it looks like the time has come for me to get a RP2350 pico or alike board and try Mecrisp Quintus on the cheap.
But that only after I have spent some time playing with your FURS. Paradoxically, Mecrisp maturity and cessation of its active development may actually increase its use in projects. One doesn't need to look for new updates but can focus on the task at hand instead. I find myself struggling with the habit of frequent checks for the new updates and now this time can be better used. Or so I hope. Time will tell.
Cheers,
Maciek
Hi Terry, Hi Maciek!
Happy to read you both are having fun, and I am glad you take the stable base of Mecrisp-Stellaris without planned further enhancements as a rock solid ground for your own creativity. I worked on it for more than a decade, and be sure, if you find a bug, I am there to fix it.
For me, both my hobby and my professional work happens on FPGAs now. I could have written an ARM Cortex M0 compatible softcore to continue using Mecrisp-Stellaris, but ARM is legally hostile against open source softcores implementing their instruction set, yielding its patent sword in sneaky ways to get rid of these efforts on FPGAs. With the RISC-V ecosystem being friendly and growing, I changed ships, and put my effort and focus into this upcoming architecture.
While I still have an eye on what cool features new microcontrollers come up with, I feel like I saw too many different chips on my bench...
Last month, I wished to play with my old love, the MSP430, and created the FemtoMSP430, a processor implementation designed with the instruction set of the classic MSP430, but with a flexible bus interface including busy signaling to connect it with video hardware and possibly other creative uses. The playground contains a phantasy "microcontroller" design for the ULX3S FPGA board, interactively running the original Mecrisp Forth image for MSP430G2755, enhanced with a text mode on 800x600 video, USB-CDC terminal and a lot of GPIO wires: https://codeberg.org/Mecrisp/FemtoMSP430
Matthias
@m-atthias hi, it is very interesting to know that your Forth will also be used in FPGA.
May I know if your hardware is ULX3S with ECP5 12F or ULX3S with ECP5 85F ?
I have an ULX3S with an ECP5 85F, but the design will fit in the smaller ones, too, if you change the nextpnr-ecp5 invocation to yours.
Note that you'll get much better performance for less resource usage if you use Mecrisp-Quintus or Mecrisp-Ice on the same target, as their respective processor cores are more optimised and need less cycles per instruction than the freshly baked, still experimental FemtoMSP430.
@m-atthias Will your FemtoMSP430 code in codeberg.org be workable in other ECP5 board like Colorlight or Muse ICE-Sugar Pro with the same Lattice LFE5U fpga chip ?
The design uses HDMI video out and USB lines directly connected to the FPGA, which is not the same as HUB75 attached LED panels and ethernet on the Colorlight, and it will require porting effort until you get a nice terminal on your blazingly bright LED wall :-) The other board has HDMI on the breakout maybe? The FemtoMSP430 processor core itself should be quite independent regarding the actual FPGA, just like the FemtoRV32.
By the way... Unless you are a big fan of the MSP430 instruction set, make sure to check out the RISC-V designs as included in Mecrisp-Quintus for various FPGA boards, also including VGA graphics options. For driving HUB75 panels, however, you'll probably have to write your own logic to push pixels...
Hi Matthias!
The decade you spent on Mecrisp_Stellaris resulted in the most complete, stable and incredibly useful embedded Forth I've ever used. I plan to be using it until I'm too old to type :)
I understand the commercial nature of ARM and the restrictions, and personally it never mattered to me because I can buy $0.60 STM32G0 MCU's with 64KB flash etc, which do everything I need.
Mecrisp-Stellaris will still be as useful in 2030 on a STM32F051 as it was in 2014 :)
Thank you again for Mecrisp-Stellaris, because in my opinion, you left the world a better place for all your hard work, and I expect there will never be another Forth anything like it..
Best Regards
Terry
Dear Terry,
many, many thanks for your very kind reply! I am glad you joined the project in its earliest stages, and I hope Mecrisp-Stellaris will continue to serve you well.
Matthias
!!SECONDED!!
Yes, thank you so much! (& to Terry, and all who have worked on Mecrisp Stellaris, too.)
---John
Thanks, too, you are welcome!