Microchip does not want to earn too much money on ICD2 and PICkit 1 or PICkit 2 either. Their core business is to sell chips to as many customers as possible, big and small. Trust me, BAJ, even though I have only 5 years of experience with PICs (3.5 years actually since I need to minus my 1.5 years in USA). I think we need to agree on this. They allow a clone ICD2 market just because they want to sell more chips. In China, they allow two major distributors to build ICD2 (both are rectangular shapes even though you may not understand Chinese). They are also both authorised by Microchip build PS+ clones. http://www.goldenchip.com.cn/tools/mplabicd2/mplabicd2.asp http://www.burnon.com/product/development/index.asp By the way, they do earn money on software like MPLAB C18 and MPLAB C30 and some other dsPIC libraries. They can not simply give them away. It will irk third party ISVs like Hitech and IAR and CCS. Regards, Xiaofan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Byron A Jeff" Newsgroups: gmane.comp.hardware.microcontrollers.pic Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 11:25 PM Subject: Re: [PIC] dsPIC for hobbyists But MChip doesn't make money on software (C30 excluded). However I'm sure they are profiting from PicKit and ICD sales. I'm actually surprised that they allow for an ICD clone market at all. So releasing the interface spec becomes a dual edged sword. While it will benefit Linux, won't it further erode the ICD2 market share? BAJ -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist