micros

My mean pauses are a few hundred micros.

But maybe wait 1-2 micros and see if you can combine 10 packets (up to MTU) to decrease overall latency.

Although modern embedded systems are still very constrained, the days of 8-bit micros are basically over.

Standard deviation is slightly more (300-500 micros), with a max of a millisecond or two.

There was also the shift (back?) to more modularity than you had on the micros.

Will you be recommending any specific boards / micros / libraries from now forward?

This guy did some cool work on compiling linux for 8 bit micros.

I've been tempted to try getting rust going on some of the small arm micros I've got lying around.

It is certainly cheaper in some cases: the Pro Micros run Mega32U4's which have built-in USB controllers; all you need is a micro-USB cable.

Almost all of the micros on the market have an RC on die but it's usually better to just pop a crystal on the board.

Back in the days of the 8-bit micros there were some games that were absolutely incredible for what they could pack into a tiny machine.

On computers, the previous generation of 8-bit micros couldn't handle fonts.

And micros do get throttled, but they also get a certain number of "throttle credits" that help them survive bursts.

Back when 8 bit micros were the "big" machines:-) Hal Chamberlin wrote a book called "The Musical Applications of Digital Microprocessors" which discusses this sort of frequency synthesis in detail.

Around the same time I entered high school and they had a full classroom full of networked BBC Micros!