I do not think the DSP engine is a problem with hobbyist since
the price difference with PIC24 is not really that important.
For production use, it does matter though.

Are there any datasheet or other information available to the
public? So PIC24F will be slower than dsPIC30F, right? Hopefully
the current consumption will be much lower as well.

What about PIC33? I thought it was dsPIC33. Looks like it is
again outsourced like 18J device (3.3V only and less flash retention
life). Anyway I do not think that is a big problem for hobbyists 
as well. The only concern is the price of an ICD2 which is
really necessary. I think ICD2 is a good investment though
for any hobbyists looking into 18F or higher end device.

Regards,
Xiaofan

-----Original Message-----
From: olin_piclist@embedinc.com [mailto:olin_piclist@embedinc.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 11:32 PM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [PIC] recomended PICs for hobbyists

I don't understand the problem with the current 30F.  Yes it has a DSP
engine.  From the programmer's point of view, this adds two special purpose
accumulators and a dozen or so instructions that act on them.  That's it.
They can be completely ignored if not doing DSP.  There are no
initialization issues and no gotchas due to just leaving them alone.  Tear
out the pages in the manual if you like.

I've done several dsPIC projects now and have yet to use the DSP engine or
write a single instruction that uses the DSP accumulators.  I'm not trying
to avoid them, in fact I'd like to do a DSP project with a dsPIC, but it
hasn't come up yet.

The point is that the existing dsPIC is a very capable easy to program 16
bit microcontroller with lots of nice peripherals.  You don't have to wait
for the PIC 24 for the DSP engine to be removed to get the 16 bit
microcontroller.  The only advantage of the PIC 24 will be somewhat lower
cost with the disadvantage of lower max clock speed.  For a hobbyist buying
a small number to have around for general projects, the PIC 30 looks better
since it has the higher max clock speed.  And maybe some day you'll be glad
the DSP engine is there.  In the mean time just pretend it isn't.  I don't
see how that's a drawback.

By the way, I don't think the PIC 24 is such a good idea.  Every one of the
dsPIC projects I've done have been pushing the available cycles.  The slower
PIC 24 would have been useless in all cases.  The PIC 33 sounds interesting
if you can live with the 3.3V max and if they can get the flash retention
life into a reasonable range.
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