>    > use a 12C508, it's cheaper than a 555 and all the caps
>    > and resisters that go with it.
>
>    Really? I never thought of it like that.
>
>Well, no, not really.  In unit quantitites a 555 is about $0.50, resistors
>(2 required) are about $0.02, and caps are maybe $0.10, for a total cost of
>less than $1.  While a 12c508 might be less than $1 in quantity, it's more
>than that if you only buy one, and you probably should still have at least
>a bypass cap.
>
>However, when you start talking about a 555 connected to a divider chip,
>and count in circuit complexity and PC board space and such, I think the
>12c508 starts to pull ahead pretty quickly.  A lot of the "neat things"
>people have done with 12c508s are replacements for 555-like timers - see
>microchip's web page...
>
>BillW

It's one thing if you're building it for yourself, and quite another if you
have to manufacture thousands or millions. In a real-world design, we
figure it costs us somewhere between 10 cents and 25 cents just to handle a
part, i.e., buy it,  stock it, track it, insert it in the board etc. So if
you're manufacturing a product, it doesn't take many parts to exceed the
real cost of a controller, even if the parts were FREE.

That's what makes PICs so powerful.

Reg Neale