Dear Community,
In November 2019 we invited you to place advance orders for the Propeller 2 Multicore Microcontroller Revision C Engineering Samples (P2X8C4M64P-ES) in trays of 90 units. These are equivalent to the production chips we will receive in Fall 2020 except for their "ES" laser etching (Engineering Sample). We projected an April and May delivery for these 7,500 chips and you pre-ordered many trays of them.
So, where are these P2 chips? This week, ON Semiconductor said the first shipment would be delayed because the packaging factory is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we don't have a delivery date for the P2 chips but will update the P2 community when it is provided to Parallax. Until that time, your guess is as good as ours. When they arrive we will have around 3,000 units available for purchase after the pre-order trays are shipped.
Chip released the Spin2 compiler and is now writing the documentation. The P2 forums have been active with a number of P2 code contributions from JonnyMac and others. The flexgui programming tool from ersmith continues to evolve with support for assembly, Spin, BASIC and C. Jeff Martin is updating the Propeller Tool to include Spin2, but there's no certain release date yet. The MicroPython effort is moving along nicely thanks to our friends Down Under. We have yet to start any specifications or planning for a P2 module.
What else is going on at Parallax? We're holding the course in these times of uncertainty and operating as an "essential business" for purposes of distance learning. You may have noticed that we sent 130 robots out to educators last week and enrolled them in our distance learning workshops next week. Our Rocklin building has minimal staff in sales, manufacturing, and shipping to keep Parallax functioning. Each of our on-site team has at least 2,000 sf of the building to themselves with walls between them. They're following extremely strict hygiene and distance separation standards while the rest of us are working from home.
Stay safe and let's get through this time together, and look forward to new possibilities with the P2!
Sincerely,
Ken and Chip
