Mike Harrison wrote:

>>Microchip stopped supporting their *own* ICD (ICD1) in recent MPLAB.

Yeah, that was a piss off. So I continue to use an older
version of MPLAB because it's 'good enough'.

>>(Could not be too hard to *keep* existing support, could it??)
>>I guess that it was just to make the old ICD clones unusable.

Not enough of them out there to bother.
I think it was more a case of 'its older, lets forget about it'.

>>Now, when there are several good ICD 2 clones, i guess Mchip tries to kill them too.  Just wondering if their own ICD2 really contiues to work.
>>(Why did they not uffer an upgrade firmware or MPLAB driver for the old ICD??)
>>When will I be forced to buy ICD3...?

You are only 'forced' if you want to use their newer chips.
The ICD1 and ICD2 program the older chips just fine.
Having to buy YET ANOTHER programmer is a disincentive to
even LOOK at their new chips.

Or stop buying Microchip and use something else. AVR, etc.

> I really don't think Microchip cares about clones - they are in the 
 > business of selling chips, not devtools.

Agreed.

> It costs them time, money, and effort to support obsolete hardware, 

No more so than to support NEW hardware.
People generally know how to use their OLD hardware and
already have it working correctly. Never underestimate the
resistance of inertia. If it ain't broke...

 > so dropping support in new
> releases makes sense. 

NO, IT DOESN'T! All it does is slap people who have remained
loyal to a particular manufacturer.

If I have to go out and buy new dev tools to use their new,
bigger chips, I am MUCH more inclined to look at competitors chips
since I'm out of pocket for new devtools in either case.
After all 'change is good'...

Unless there is a significant difference in the hardware requirements, 
there is NO reason to NOT support new chips on the old programmers.
ICSP isn't THAT complex and the interface to EVERY ICSP capable
chip is basically the same: *MCLR, PGM, Clock and Data.

The ICD eventually received a firmware update to program the
16F8xxA devices by 'faking out' MPLAB 5.x.

There is NO GOOD REASON that the 6.* series of MPLAB
could not have supported it (ICD1) or for ICD2 to support
the latest chips with updated firmware.

>I doubt there is anything more to it than that. 

Never attribute to malice what you can attribute to STUPIDITY!
Microchip, are you listening? Users LIKE their old programmers.
Users are comfortable with them, and want to continue to use them,
so SUPPORT them by providing whatever firmware/software updates
are needed to program the newer chips.

It's easy to buy loyalty. Just support the users existing programmers.

Robert

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