Luis Moreira wrote: > Hi Guys, > I have been listening to people running down Freescale for a long time an= d I just can not see it like you do. > -In terms of products they are just brilliant, I love their uC. > -In terms of tools they are offering Codewarrior with 32K limit for C but= no -limit for assembler. This is a very powerful tool... > -There are free programmers and debuggers available on there own datashee= ts or in forums. > -The evaluation tools are cheap; I got two boards for =A370, and as a bon= us it would be very easy to modify them to program another uC on the range. > -Samples are available to everybody. > -their customer support is very good. I had a problem with the clock on t= he first micro I used (My own fault) I email them to ask how to solve it, t= he guy on the other side understood differently what I wrote, and in the fa= ce of it gave me the wrong advice. I went ballistic when I found out, and w= hen they send me the customer satisfaction survey I just let it rip. Three = hours later I received an email from the engineer that gave me the advice a= pologizing for the error. This was not a corporate apology, with a lot of b= ullshit, this was a personal apology. Thinking about it now I did not expre= ss the problem properly and I took him in the wrong direction hence the wro= ng advice. Later I had problems with the programmer I built (my fault again= ) and they were great. > - I can not comment two much on parts availability as I do not do mass pr= oduction, mostly my boards are prototypes and 10's of, but I never had prob= lems. I heard they had problems with their XGate parts, damaged silicon at = production... > I have to confess that since I got into Freescale I have not used PIC tha= t much, as I can always find in MY OPINION, a better solution on the HC8 or= HC12 family range. I have to stress this is my opinion and have to admit I= have put much more effort into learning how to use Codewarrior and HC8 and= HCS12, so for me it's easier to look at a problem and go strait to them. O= ther people will have other requirements so as we say in the UK, its horses= for courses. > I did heard about the horror stories of the past, and the only thing I ca= n say is that Freescale seems to have learned a bit with them, I also think= they have a new philosophy(they seem to be going for Microchip :)), and th= is is great for us, as they will bend backwards to get more market share. > And no, I do not work for Freescale or any of company of the group and I = have no shares on Metrowerks :) > Best regards > Luis > > > p.s- please be gentle with me... :) = > = Its OK, Luis, listen up. It wasn't a horror story... horror stories just = scare you for 90 minutes then you get to drive home. This was a = DISASTER, and I never recovered from it. Its just that many of us were treated very badly in the early 90s when = Motorola dropped everything to build cellphone chips. I had to redesign = 15 products because Motorola would NOT honor its committment to sell = chips. Its that simple. I lost a large fortune having to redesign these = products into MicroChip and out of Motorola HC05. My accountant at the time said I lost about $250,000. The reason is that = when I design a product, it is MY job to decide what components to use. = I'd been assured that Motorola would deliver product. When they did not, = _I_ had to eat the costs of the redesign. The client shouldn't pay = again, after all, _I_ decided what processor to use, right? With that = kinda money, I could have afforded a few more wives... I can't forget something like that. I redesigned all 15 projects into = MicroChip because a Microchip VP assured me that this would not happen = with MicroChip parts. And it hasn't. I have never, EVER, been left high = and dry by MicroChip, not even once. And there are 1000's of other = engineers that suffered the same thing. Why else would MicroChip go from = a garage operation to being the world's leading supplier of uPs in 12 = years? Am I loyal to MicroChip? You bet. They'd have to really fall on their = face for me to drop 'em. Are they perfect? heck, no, sometimes they = seem to be made of nothing but left turns... but they've always come across for me, and they get my = business. Its that simple. Isn't simple wonderful? Now, Freescale is probably working feverishly to try to win customers = back, because if they DON'T they are done. Toast. Finito. I have an open = mind, but I am VERY skeptical. --Bob = -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist