On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 13:49:47 +0800, you wrote:

>Right now my colleagues in Germany are looking for small
>MCUs to replace Atmel AVR. We are again facing delivery
>problems with Atmel AVRs even though the price is good
>and we have lots of code base for AVR. Somehow Atmel
>is always fulfilling the requirements of big white
>goods company first and ignore smaller customers. This
>situation is quite similar to last time when the
>price of Flash was hot back 4 or 5 years ago.
>
>Of course I suggest them to use PIC and Silabs MCU just
>as we use here in Singapore but they seem to not quite
>like PIC (because they like AVR?) and Silabs MCU is on the 
>higher side of the price range.

Availability seems to have been a persistent problem with Atmel over the years...

Microchip have always had a policy of good availability of parts once released, and a track record
to back it up. The wide range of parts means that there are often pin- and code-compatible
alternatives in the unlikely event of a shortage on one part. 
They have always appreciated and supported the business of the lower-volume user, unlike every other
MCU maker, all of whom have had severe availability problems at some point in their past.
Any manufacturer who targets a few very-high volume customers will be at risk of availability
problems when those customers change their mind. The fact that Microchip target a large number of
lower-volume users means they are much less susceptible to large unexpected demand spikes.
They now have a dedicated test cell at one of their fabs that allows them to do rush-builds of a
part on demand, albeit at a price premium.




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