Luis Moreira wrote: > Hi Bob & Herbert, > Point taken, when you guys had your problems I was 10 years old and about= 6 years from discovering the PIC, and perhaps that is why I see it differe= ntly. > Now my problem is that I only started having a look and using Freescale m= icros about two years ago. Luckily I have working with me a 63 year old eng= ineer that went through all this, but still recognises how good the Freesca= le products are, and he kind of push me forward to have a look at it. What = you all said about Motorola really influences me too, and when things seeme= d to go wrong I always had that in the back of my mind. If it wasn't for hi= m I would have drop it many months back. > If I had drop it I would definitely had miss out. > This also applies to Altera which now is offering great products, but in = the past has had very serious problems. > What I am trying to say is that what you guys say influences a lot of peo= ple in this list. I do appreciate you sharing your experiences with us, and= now after you explained why you dismiss Freescale every time, I can better= make and educated decision about them. Just dismissing it is not fair, not= for Freescale because they can take care of them self's, but to all off us. > Best regards > Luis > > P.S.- Sometimes I have a big problem to put in words what I really want t= o say so I hope I expressed it correctly, and I am sorry you lost that much= just because of a stupid management decision from Motorola . = If I were Motorola, I probably would have make the same decision, but = instead of halting production on a mature product, I would have put in = a NEW plant for the new cellphone chips. It was a bad decision on their = part, and they are now living with the consequences. --Bob > = > = > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf = Of Bob Axtell > Sent: 27 June 2006 18:12 > To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. > Subject: Re: [OT] 6-pin MCU costs just 43 cents > > Luis Moreira wrote: > = >> Hi Guys, >> I have been listening to people running down Freescale for a long time a= nd 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 bu= t no -limit for assembler. This is a very powerful tool... >> -There are free programmers and debuggers available on there own datashe= ets or in forums. >> -The evaluation tools are cheap; I got two boards for =A370, and as a bo= nus 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 = the first micro I used (My own fault) I email them to ask how to solve it, = the guy on the other side understood differently what I wrote, and in the f= ace of it gave me the wrong advice. I went ballistic when I found out, and = when 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 = apologizing for the error. This was not a corporate apology, with a lot of = bullshit, this was a personal apology. Thinking about it now I did not expr= ess the problem properly and I took him in the wrong direction hence the wr= ong advice. Later I had problems with the programmer I built (my fault agai= n) and they were great. >> - I can not comment two much on parts availability as I do not do mass p= roduction, mostly my boards are prototypes and 10's of, but I never had pro= blems. 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 th= at much, as I can always find in MY OPINION, a better solution on the HC8 o= r 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 an= d HCS12, so for me it's easier to look at a problem and go strait to them. = Other people will have other requirements so as we say in the UK, its horse= s for courses. >> I did heard about the horror stories of the past, and the only thing I c= an say is that Freescale seems to have learned a bit with them, I also thin= k they have a new philosophy(they seem to be going for Microchip :)), and t= his 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