I've been dabbling in TI's MSP430 series, and Freescale's M68hc series.
Between the two, the TI wins by a lot for my hobbyist oriented projects.  I
love all the extra 16-bit registers and the many available boot-up modes.
They are both von-neumann architectures, as opposed to the PICs harvard
architecture.  Apparently this has to do with the way the peripherals are
mapped onto the data buses, though I don't really understand it all yet
(thats why I'm playing with them).

The down side to the TI chips is that they are not available in DIL
packaging, but I've found the SOIC chips to be pretty easy to solder onto a
breakout board, or there are "pre-soldered" breakout boards available from
Olimex and other sources for ~$7, which are great for breadboard prototypes.
The TI sample service is quite good, as well (always a plus in my book).

The GREAT thing about the TI chips is the full GNU tools available.  There
aren't many *great* tutorials on how to get started with them, but if you
have any experience using GCC the learning curve is pretty mild.  The
standard JTAG programmer is $9, along with a $7 development board and you're
ready to get started with a great low-power von-neumann uP for under US $20.
TI also provides a good free assembler if you like that route, similar to
MPLab, which also compiles up to 2k of C-code.


--------------------------------------------
Robert B.
email:  robertb@nerdulator.net
www.christmascheese.com - Great holiday gifts!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hopkins" <rdhopkins@ihug.co.nz>
To: "'Microcontroller discussion list - Public.'" <piclist@mit.edu>
Sent: Friday, November 26, 2004 3:46 PM
Subject: RE: [PIC] Microchip vs Atmel vs other MCU companies -- was: PIC
vsAVR


> What other microprocessor manufactures compete against PIC & Atmel?
>
> Does Texas Instruments have similar chips?
>
> I personally would only be interested in chips that are supplied as DIL
> packages at this stage.
>
> I am also looking to see who has the easiest way of setting up a
> reliable programming environment at low cost.
>
> _______________________________________
> Roy
> Tauranga
> New Zealand
> _______________________________________
>
>
>
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