He is also predicting that we will face problems (supply
problems) with the 3mmx3mm parts (since Microchip is not
able to offer them). Let's wait and see. Anyway we will 
still look at the new 4x4 Microchip parts for new designs
because of the low cost, long lifespan of product,
high reliability and good support (even though we are 
not a big customer).

Another problem we touched with is the integration of
a better OPAMP (higher bandwidth) inside the PIC MCU. We 
know this is difficult because different customers requires 
different features. Generally speaking PICs have the best
mix of features. Silabs has the best in class analog
features. Atmel parts are not so good in this aspect but
they are one of the cheapest right now (especially in
Europe and P+F is a Germany company).

As for the Silabs parts, we are not so sure about their
reliability yet even though they have ensure us the long
term availability of the parts. Need to wait for production
run. They are also a bit pricey.

For high pin count, maybe 16-bit or 32-bit MCU are better 
choice than PIC/AVR/51. I do not have any experience with 
this but it is said that Renesas parts (M16C) are nice.
But the problem with Japanese manufacturers is the lack
of good documentations and third party support.

Regards,
Xiaofan

----------------------------------------------
Xiaofan Chen
R&D Engineer, Photoelectric Sensor Development
Pepperl+Fuchs Singapore
http://www.pepperl-fuchs.com
Signals for the world of automation
--------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Rigby-Jones
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 4:52 PM

I was going to say that possibly he means the architecture 
of the current A/D peripheral is not suitable for high speeds,
but what he said really doesn't make sense.

I have been looking at the Silabs parts, and will probably use 
them for some projects.  However, they do have one downside, 
which is that they have dedicated port and peripheral pins, 
unlike a PIC/Atmel etc were they are multiplexed.  This
 means if you have a application were a lot of IO is 
required, you'd need a larger Silabs device than PIC 
or Atmel e.g. in my current project we would need a 
100pin Silabs part, but an 80 pin PIC gives us more 
than enough IO.  Apart from that, they seem to be very 
nice parts.

Regards

Mike

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