Hello all.  Well I got the word today from Microchip, the 18F442-I/L (40 MHz
only standard, Industrial rating standard) will not be availbe in shipping
quantity until December at the earliest.  Those engineering samples were
first run only, they need more runs, and then wide distribution samples
before they ship in qty.  As for the 77A revision to the F877, it won't be
out until after the new year, likely March.

So, if anyone is using the F877, you are stuck with the copyable flash and
memory-dumpable code protected region from pirate code getting past your
bootloader.  Basically the chip is very, very weak and unfortunately is a
poor design.  They've fixed it in the 77A and 18Fxx2, but it took forever,
and is stil not fixed for another 5 months.  And, if weak chips get into the
stream, you can't close pandora's box.

So, do your best, but know you are delaing with a weak chip.  Darn!!!!!  And
to think the 18F gave me that glimmer of hope, just to take it away again.
That was a mind screw I didn't need.  The 16F877:  great little chip, even
better for hackers and reverse engineers and code copyers.

Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: pic microcontroller discussion list
[mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Ron Anthony
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 1:27 AM
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [PIC]: A great solution for the PIC16F877 problems (code
protect,bootloader)


how does the 18F452 compare pricewise to the 18F442, and both relative
pricewise to the 16F877 ?

-----Original Message-----
From: pic microcontroller discussion list
[mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Bob Ammerman
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 10:13 PM
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [PIC]: A great solution for the PIC16F877 problems (code
protect,bootloader)


I went to the Masters where they gave us a 18F452JW marked ES (engineering
sample).

So, it looks like the chip exists...

Bob Ammerman
RAm Systems
(contract development of high performance, high function, low-level
software)

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