>total cost = engineering cost + unit cost * number of units.

I would have to agree. Also not to forget other costs..

* future engineering cost (re-useable code can reduce)
* cost of code maintenance & enhancements
* cost of skill re-use
* cost of skills recruitment
* cost of proprietry tools

These are all really good reasons why HLL's such as C and Java start to win
the war over assembler when costs are truly computed.

Assembler is fantastic, but is only one tool in the toolbox. The difference
between a good programmer and a great one is to be fluent in all the
available tools and to be able to chose the appropriate tool or combination
of tools needed to best get the job done.

James Caska
www.virtualbreadboard.com
muvium - 'Java Bred for Embedded'



> -----Original Message-----
> From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Wouter van Ooijen
> Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 10:48 PM
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: [PIC]:PIC custom component module for
> ExpressPCB/ExpressSch?
>
>
> > I can afford to waste a few KB or even a few MB of
> > memory on a PC or a UNIX (snip)
> > You simply don't have that luxury on a PIC.
>
> That is nonsense, or more to the point: it does not always hold. As I
> stated many times before: total cost = engineering cost + unit cost *
> number of units. So depending on how the figures are either engineering
> or unit cost will be dominant (in some cases both). When engineering
> cost dominates, buy big PICs and whatever programming environment that
> gets the job done cheaply (development cost wise). When unit cost
> dominates, select the cheapest chip that will probably fit (and consider
> non-PIC chips because existing experience is not important!), and get a
> very good asm programmer (probably hire one) to cram the application
> into the chip.
>
> Sow when you want to give anyone a meaningfull advice, first try to
> figure out in which of the two situations he (she) will be. A hobbyist
> is not likely to be in the 'unit cost dominates' situation, unless he
> values his time very very low.
>
> Wouter van Ooijen
>
> -- -------------------------------------------
> Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
> consultancy, development, PICmicro products
>
> --
> http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
> ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.
>
>

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