The following showed up in one of Jack Ganssle's broadcast newsletter on
embedded topics, perhaps some have already seen it:

....found that the MSP430's I/O pins, when subjected to just a bit of
ESD, randomly change state. This is a pretty cool MPU, since every
peripheral bit can be an input or output port, or even an interrupt input.
He watched the ESD testing lab's experiments change bits from output ports
to interrupt inputs, leading to erroneous and erratic interrupts. Though
the parts survived the ESD events, the mode changes could horribly crash
the firmware, a very bad thing for critical applications.
An A/D converter also suffered from temporary brain damage when zapped.....

Reading on the article suggested that it might take 4 times as much code to
actually check states and memory than to keep the process running.

Of course, here in FL, the high humidity keeps ESD to a minimum most of the
year, but I am sinfully less than careful with my PICs, and have never lost
a single chip to ESD.
I am also working with the MSP430's via a TI flash dev kit. Just in case
anyone is interested in the comparison, I will post my first MSP ESD failure
when/if it occurs.

The best way to unexpectedly kill a PIC through I/O that I have seen,
although I have not been stupid enough to try it myself - is to attempt to
implement the MC ap note on triac control, where it suggests (and shows a
drawing of) connecting the AC line directly to I/O for zero-cross
detection - relying on the pin's internal protection diodes. Apparently,
some have made this work for a while. I was told of one local team of
developers who went through a whole box of PICs trying to make it work -
their customer insisted that since it was in an ap note, it had to be their
fault....I wonder if they got paid for their effort?...

That was just a ridculous idea to try and implement.

In the real world the bottom line is that PICs may be ugly, but they sure
are tough - at least in comparison to MSP430's!

Chris

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