Olin Lathrop wrote:
>
> > Which still leaves us here: If the chip says 4 MHz, it may die in strange
> > and unexpected ways, at anything higher than 4 MHz.
> >
> > I wish someone from uChip would step in and make a definitive statement..
>
> They have.  Read the data sheet.  4MHz parts are guaranteed to run up to
> 4MHz over the full range of the other parameters.  20MHz parts are
> guaranteed to run up to 20MHz over the full range of the other parameters.
> If you violate any of the specs, whether clock speed or something else,
> there is no guarantee that the part will function as described.
>
> For some reason a few "I'll spend a fortune to get something for nothing"
> types on this list are questioning what they can get away with on the speed
> spec.  The official answer has been and I'm sure will continue to be
> "nothing".  I can't quite figure out what part of "nothing" they don't
> understand.

<soapbox>
Man you can be hard-headed. I asked a question and many of the posts
were in response. For the record Olin, we only buy 20MHZ PICs, and
run them at much less, AND lately they are CHEAPER than the -4P and
-10P parts anyway!! At least in Australia.

I don't think anyone in this recent thread wanted to get "something
for nothing". I wanted to KNOW what I got, nothing more. I like to
KNOW.

Now the main train of thought seems to be that the good chips pass
ALL tests and are marked 20MHz. The "crappy chips" that fail in one
way or other are marked at the lower rating... So know I want to
KNOW what fails in the "crappy chips". ie, exactly what sort of
failure occurs and at what freq, this is the sort of thing a
good engineer likes to KNOW. I am also curious if the "crappy
chips" may have possibility of other failure, or a higher
probability of failure at normal low-freq operation. Makes sense,
if that die batch has already some proven failure record...

Information like that might be of some use Olin. I understand
you may be bored with this topic but labelling people as cheap,
unprofessional "types" is just insulting with no benefit to
anyone.
</soapbox>
:o) (because roman is always happy)
-Roman

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