Re: uC selection

"David L. Jones" <altzone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mar 15, 3:01 pm, "Jon Slaughter" <Jon_Slaugh...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<a7yvm109gf...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:86a4146e-ddcc-40aa-8316-5ded547c1fc9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



On Mar 14, 7:14 pm, "Jon Slaughter" <Jon_Slaugh...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Currently I use microchip pics but I'm looking possibly to switch, but
what?
Is Atmel worth it? What about TI? I'm looking for something similar to
microchip but more of a commercial aspect. I have never seen any
commercial
device that uses a pic and I assume there are reasons for this? It seems
that pic's are only for hobbiests so using them in a commercial product
is a
no-no?

It's spelled "hobbyist". Just like "lobbyist".
PICs are used in cheap, high volume applications where you won't even
see the part number or logo.
What language do you program in? What kind of applications? Simple
button-LCD-I2C or more complex signal processing?

I have programmed in a large number of languages and thats not really the
issue(python, php, C/C++/C#, java, assembly, pascal, etc..). The main thing
is the funcitonality and scalability.

PIC are hard to beat for scalability.
Check out the real details instead of just guessing.
The development toolsets are consistent across 8-bit, 16-bit, DSP, and
32bit lines.

And crappy... The PIC32 bit toolchain uses an ancient GCC compiler.
Free and student versions are crippled on purpose (not all
optimisation options available). So if you want the most from the
PIC32, you really don't want to use the toolset from Microchip.

Besides, why mess around with obfusticated 8 bit devices which
requires proprietary tools while a proper ARM based device with open
tools can be bought for the same amount of money? Microchip has
noticed this too hence the introduction of a microcontroller with a
real CPU. I bet MIPS made them a very good offer to choose a MIPS core
over an ARM core.

When it comes to a consistent toolset I'm quite sure Eclipse beats
most microcontroller development environments hands down. And Eclipse
can work with many more targets than just PIC. If you want a top-notch
consistent development toolset which works for many devices, get
Eclipse and GNU tools.

Look at the high end 32bit PICs:
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=2591
And there is still a free student version C compiler for it.

If you need anything bigger than those then you are no longer in the
realm of microcontrollers any more, but microprocessors like the ARM
that can access massive amounts of memory and other resources.

Like I stated above, PIC32 is MIPS32 based. They shouldn't call it
PIC. It just doesn't do the MIPS core right. MIPS and ARM are almost
the same. Both are 32bit CPUs with a 32 bit instruction set and a 16
bit compact instruction subset.

--
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E-mail naar nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
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