Unless you're really hammering things, it is often the case that the 1-cycle thing isn't much of an advantage, for example if you can do it on a 4MHz pic, a 1MHz AVR would be _roughly_ equivalent, but you try finding a cheap 3-terminal 1MHz ceramic resonator...! You end up using a higher clock than necessary, at the expense of power.=20 =20 On Sat, 24 Aug 2002 16:50:21 -0500, you wrote: >I didn't consider atmel when I was looking because at the time they were >tough to get. Aparently they aren't anymore. My only complaint about = PICs >is the bank/page switching. I can't tell you how many times that has = bitten >me. It may be true that PICs have fast single cycle instructions, but = my >20mhz is divided by 4 so am I really seeing single cycle execution? I = feel >like I'm giving up at least 4 for every instruction. Then add up all = the >extra page and bank switching commands that are extra time consuming >instructions and I'm not sure I've gained anything. If my 16F877 didn't >require the switching, I'd have no complaints. >Good luck, >Fred > > >>From: Byron A Jeff >>Reply-To: pic microcontroller discussion list >>To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU >>Subject: Re: [AVR]: Wondering about the avr... >>Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2002 09:00:21 -0400 >> >>On Sat, Aug 24, 2002 at 10:38:31AM +0200, Jan Malina wrote: >> > Been looking at pics mostly for microcontroler work, but i stumbled >>accros >> > the atmel ones, and i wonder, what are the strong/weak points of = them >> > compared to the PIC microcontrolers? as they do seem cheaper... >> >>I'll take a crack: >> >>AVR Pros >>-------- >>* Cost effective >>* No paging/banking issues >>* Flash based w/ simple programming hardware >>* Industry standard Intel 8051 ISA >>* Reasonable program memory, I/O, and RAm resources >>* Truly free unlimited use/resources C compiler >> >>AVR Cons >>-------- >>* Perception of lack of availabilty. It was a reality in the past so it= had >> a kernel of truth. Probably scared off a lot of developers = permanently. >> >>PIC Pros >>-------- >>* Cost effective. Mchip has an amazing way of adding more but reducing >>cost. >>* Flash/EPROM based w/ simple programming hardware >>* Industry standard PIC ISA >>* Reasonable program memory, I/O, and RAM resouces >>* Fast execution of one instruction per cycle >>* True RISC ISA w/ only 35 instructions for the 16F midrange family >>* Once in production very high availability and longevity >>* Industry standard free development environment: MPLAB >>* Access to one of the greatest PIC resources, the PICLIST ;-) >> >>PIC Cons >>-------- >>* The funky architecture: banking >>* The funky architecture: paging >>* The funky architecture: RMW instructions on I/O ports >>* The funky architecture >> >>You really can't lose. It just that you'll have a different set of >>resources to use if you pick one over the other. Personally I picked = the >>PIC and stuck to it simply because there'd be a heavy cost to switching= and >>there's nothing in the cost profile that's significant enough to = warrant a >>change. >> >>Good Luck. >> >>BAJ >> >>-- >>http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList >>mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu > > > > >_________________________________________________________________ >Join the world s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. >http://www.hotmail.com -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu