At 07:08 AM 28-08-97 +0200, Tjaart van der Walt wrote:
>My (opinionated) opinion first....
>I don't think Microchip 'unveiled' 20 'new' flash micro's (for full
>production in the year 2050) in their press release for nothing.

I wasn't aware of this 'unveiling' document... anyway, calling something
'planned for full production in the year 2050' seems more marketing than
planning :-)

>The 'future products' pdf file on the Microchip site makes for real good
>reading, if a bit too humorous. They can't even fix up a buggy compiler
>in a year, so how would they be able to do a 16C877 (EE version of the
>'77) in good time?

There's one interesting thing: usually, once some manufacturer starts
running behind and trying to catch up with the development (more reacting
to others than acting and putting real new things out by themselves
*before* any competitor even thinks about something similar), they're in
serious trouble, meaning having lost the 'edge'. It's only the 'tip of the
iceberg' that becomes visible then, and the trouble usually sits deeper and
takes some time to resolve.

>Fastest 8-bit Microcontroller in the World
>[... some more interesting stuff, but not necessarily *so* interesting
>as to having a need to read it again :-)]

Ge