OK - I included that subject line just so you guys wouldn't blow me off as another MP3 player guy asking for somebody to do my work for me.

I'm kinda wondering what I'm up against here. The facts are as follows.

I can program, and I know BASIC well. I've been playing with it for about 20 years now.
I don't know C. Should I learn? Microchip seems to have a hundred different expensive compilers for every chip they make.

I need to get chunks of data off some kind of flash RAM - SD, MMC whatever, that will have been saved in a FAT file system in simple file names or numbers. I have no need to read the names of the files - in fact, I may even be able to refer to them by their starting and ending blocks, or to grab individual parts of one big file - example:

Copy block of 512 bytes from file to RAM, starting at position 52356
Send 512 bytes from RAM out over SPI
Copy the next block of file to RAM, and then send it out too.
Do this a total of 10 times because I want positions 52356-52366

bit rates might be anywhere from 20-30 kbps

Coincidently, the SPI will be going to the newer VLSI MP3 decoder chip - I think it's the VS1012. I have a developer board from Futurlec. Took weeks to arrive from Thailand. I'm not married to this chip, and I'd be thrilled to get suggestions for other solutions. if there are better ones. I just bought this thing on impulse, and now I have an application.

What this all breaks down to is that I need to build a tiny system that is full of a few hundred different pre-recorded sounds that I can call up by number from the PBpro program depending on whatever. I'd like to put the data on an SD, MMC, or other flash device, or even some other kind of non-removable FLASH that I could fill up with a VB program of my own making. Ideally, I could use a computer file system, but something else might be fine too, since I'll know the start and length of all of the sections that I'll need to access.


Suggestions? What am I up against? Should I use pre-packaged FLASH - as in memory sticks? There are licensing fees probably... what about a TQFP 512 meg chip or something like that?

I'd appreciate any insight or direction. Finding useful information quickly is a slow process in this particular subject because of all of the static and noise from people posting "I want to make my own MP3 player - can somebody help"

Thanks!


Andy Baker