As others have said, they were first to be cheaply available with cheap
tools to the average hobbyist, and were promoted as a step up from the
basic stamp by Parallax.

So with about $50 invested in 1995 one could have a few 16c84 chips
which did not require a UV lamp to erase, could be erased and
reprogrammed in seconds, and were /easy/ to use and /hard/ to break.
The assembler, simulator, programming software were free.  The
programmer was cheap.  You could prototype in the '84 and if careful
port it to a '54 if you needed cheaper chips.

With so few simple instructions, one accumulator (W), and high current
pins you couldn't help but learn assembly in one afternoon for simple
projects.

It was simply a configurable TTL type chip for me (at first) and became
much more later.  Instead of making large ttl circuits for light
sequencers I could use one chip.  Later it was simple to make a digital
light dimmer.

-Adam

rrc124+@PITT.EDU wrote:

>I have a really stupid question to ask, but it's been bothering me for a while so I'll just ago ahead and ask it:
>
>Why is the PIC uC so popular?
>
>When I look at the specs of the competition, I see nothing but seemingly better products. Now I don't want everyone to get mad.. please. I'm simply a lowly computer science student who is still very new to this little hobby.. and I've only ever used PICs, so I really can't compare fairly. But the things I see are: AVRs and SXs are much faster w/MIPS, offer things such as lots of SRAM, etc.
>
>Are PICs cheaper? Is it because there are just so damn many to chose from? Is it because they are simpler to understand, so many engineers learned on them and still hold them dear? Is it because they have such a huge base of code/developers already and the momentum keeps them going? I guess the main thing I see is that these other uC's have such an awesome MIPS advantage... so why not use them? Are they more expensive?
>
>I don't know why I'm asking this because the answer is probably a combination of all of the above. But I keep wondering if there is one huge advantage that I'm not seeing. Anyway, just a thought.
>
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