On 1/15/06, Russell McMahon wrote: > I have a friend who is reasonably knowledgeable on industry directions > and every time I send him any Microchip 'ra ra' material, while he is > heavily committed in other areas, he recites the same basic mantra - > ie 'ARM is it, the whole world is going to ARM, the future is an ARM > future, those who are not already on the ARM bandwagon are in danger > of missing the future, ...' . > > Thoughts? Well, I was surprised to find that I can get decent ARM MCUs (ie, add a crystal, a few caps and it works) for under $10 in one-offs (atmel AT917S series). They are cheaper than higher-end MSP430s. Have a bunch of memory, fast, lots of built in goodies, etc. Still not reasonable for the $20 thermostat market, but good for the $80 internet enabled thermostat market, for instance. There will always be a niche for 8 bit MCUs, just as there is still a surprisingly large niche for 4 bit MCUs (you may be wearing one...). As things compress downward (32 processors for $10, 16 bits for $5, 8 bits for $2, 4 bits - dime a dozen) the smaller processors will still be attractive in those markets where cost is the utmost concern. Notice that the things we buy are getting cheaper and cheaper for more features. But your friend has a point - ARM really is a huge part of the MPU/MCU world, and it's hard to find a 32 bit competitior to ARM. If your project is sitting in that space, then ARM better be a consideration. I suspect that ARM is trying to push its products down into the 16 bit and 8 bit space to take advantage of the huge market and those embedded designers that would rather work with an architecture similar to today's PCs. What ARM really needs ot do, though, is develop standard ARM footprints and feature sets for about a dozen variants so the processor becomes a commodity while the architecture remains proprietary. This will give many companies more reason to use it since there will be second sources, and cheaper more competetive parts. -Adam -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist