on 29 Dec 95 John Magrane wrote:


>Masked C54's in the volumes you are talking about (I assume 250k/ year is
>reasonable) would be significantly less than $1.00 (maybe to $.80). If you use
>die instead of packaged parts, the price drops some more. The new C52 will be
>even cheaper.

Coo-wul! Chee-eep!

>The COP4 from National is gone.

Good riddance, according to another post, the COP4's were programmed in an
ancient celtic toungue using heiroglyphics and animal sacrifices.

>They are re-emphaisizing the COP8 and one part, the COP912 is probably in the
>$.65 cent range in masked.

Thanks to you and several others who have responded on this issue.  I think I
can safely say that a boatload of PIC 54's or 52's might be bought for less
than $1.00 each, maybe $0.80, and Microchip has some stiff competition.
Microchip also has some SERIOUS FANS.  Anything that creates this much brand
loyalty must have something going for it.

Somehow my earlier message left the impression that, since I mentioned the
Dreaded Talking Toaster and a slow, cheap, dumb microcontroller in the same
post, that I might be thinking about doing one job with the other part.  Au
contrare (sp?) I realize that sound requires processor speed and lots of
memory (usually).  But..

What do I dread about the Dreaded Talking Toaster?

        That my name might be on the patent.

        That it would only say "Your toast is burning"

        That I would have to design a personality module for it that would
        have Bart Simpson's voice.

        ""  ""  O.J. Simpson's voice.

        That Steve Ciarcia would bash my toaster for telling him "Your toast
        has reached two hundred and fifty degrees celcius, and will achieve
        autoignition temperature within fifteen seconds"

        That Consumer Reports would bash my toaster for having a bad accent
        or a nasal twang.


-- Lawrence Lile