The first SPLat was designed in December 1995, on the back of a custom controller design we did where the customer needed the ability to do some final on-site programming. That was actually an echo of a scripting language we created for Chubb Fire alarm panels back in 1987.

The first SPLat was the SP10-8, which became the SP108. It used a Motorola MC68HC705C9 processor running at 4MHz, with an external serial eeprom for the user program. SL88, OEM36, AJ18 and PMC3 were similar.

More recently the MC68HC08 became available and affordable (typically, our customers need cost effective solutions, not V8 power). This chip has onboard Flash, which stores both our operating Firmware and the user program. It also runs at 8MHz and uses half as many clock cycles, so what with faster onboard program memory, faster clock and more efficient instructions, second generation SPLat controllers are up to 7 times faster than 1st generation designs. These product include MMi201, SL99, MS12 and numerous custom SPLat controllers.

In December 2005 we introduced MultiTrack programming. MultiTrack technology “lowers the bar” on programming multitasking applications to the point where a complete novice can be using it with only a few hours of study.

The current generation of SPLat 8-bit controllers uses MC9S08 controllers at up to 20MHz. The chips have 128K flash and 8K of RAM.

We are in the process of transitioning to 32-bit ARM processors, at least for the majority of designs. These offer much larger memories and faster operation at an affordable price. The EC1 was the first off the shelf product using an ARM, following a number of custom designs. Some designs will still contain 8-bit processors, for example custom controllers needed in high volumes where every last cent counts.