Craig Edwards <piclist@mit.edu> wrote:

> I may have come across as wanting to learn PIC programming, but that
> was only because the PIC seemed (to me) like the most likely
> candidate. I don't have a particular preference as to the underlying
> technology as long as it is easy to program, isn't overkill for my
> little problem, and is readily available.  Looks like both the Cypress
> and Microchip products satisfy these criteria. 

    Well, my bias toward the Cypress M8 parts for this particular project
    should be pretty obvious... But if you plan to do non-USB projects in
    the future, learning the PIC at some point would be an excellent
    idea. 

    The PICs are, after all, the top-selling 8-bit microcontrollers in
    the world, and while Microchip might not have the best parts for
    certain specialized applications, they've certainly done a great job
    building microcontrollers (and dev tools, and the support
    infrastructure) that are ideal for all the other general-purpose
    apps.  Besides, the PIC developer community is much larger and more
    accessible than that of the M8; there's nothing like the PICLIST for
    Cypress parts. 

    Of course, learning one of Cypress's M8-based USB chips will also
    prepare you to use our PSoC chips (http://www.cypressmicro.com), and
    you might find that to be a lot of fun, too. 

    -Andy

=== Andrew Warren - aiw@cypress.com
=== 
=== Principal Design Engineer
=== Cypress Semiconductor Corporation


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