More Power and Performance from the Parallax BASIC Stamp

With the success of the BASIC Stamp and its domination of the small, BASIC-language microcontroller market, one might expect that Parallax would sit back and simply enjoy the fruits of its past labours. Well, this is clearly not the case. If the introduction of the latest BASIC Stamp, the BS2p, is any indication, Parallax is not sitting still for anything.Arguably, for every product there will be a customer that argues the merits of that product and why it is ‘best’. This is human nature and I’m human too. For my money, the BASIC Stamp is best because of its simplicity and elegance. While competitors try in vain to jam desktop languages into embedded micros, Parallax chooses to keep things simple – even with the spectacular improvements included in the BS2p.Like the BS2sx and BS2e, the BS2p is a multi-program module that is based on the Ubicom SX microcontroller. Firmware improvements in the BS2p means that it actually runs 20% faster (at approximately 12,000 instructions per second) than the BS2sx while consuming about 33% less current. This is a big help to robot builders and other battery-powered applications.Here’s an overview of the BS2p additions and improvements: