At 01:02 PM 10/2/2008, alan smith wrote:
>Wasn't it Atmel just a few years ago was in serious management 
>crisis?  They sold off...or did they...the VoIP specific stuff.  So 
>what would ON retain, and what would MChip retain?  Interesting the 
>ON is now expanding into new areas. Maybe they would take the 8051 
>stuff, MChip retains ARM (rumor was they were doing an ARM core 
>device anyway?) and integrates the serial memory into thier 
>offerings, and AVR..wouldnt they just kill it? Why keep a competing 
>device in the fold?

Ummm, why not?

For some years now the Microchip PIC business has been essentially 
shrinking - well, not growing fast enough. Many commentators have 
been critical of not only the newer PIC offerings but also of the 
legacy parts and how the 18F and smaller are failing to address some 
areas. Even the PIC32 is not due to have Ethernet or CAN bus parts 
announced before January '09 on current schedules.

Add to this the fact that several EXTREMELY large users (no names, no 
pack drill) of Microchip parts in the past have deserted and in one 
case went to Atmel and in another which I know well went part Atmel, 
part NXP. Where Atmel has directly competing parts they are often as 
much as 25% cheaper than Microchip and nowhere near as subject to 
problems and erratta.

Interestingly, Microchip and Atmel are not natural competitors of 
each other. Most Atmel users would rarely if ever consider a 
Microchip controller and the reverse also applies. The attraction for 
Microchip is not to remove competition, but to ensure their own 
survival. The more natural competitors for Microchip are Freescale 
and NXP. With Intel moving out of the embedded devices market in 
80x32/51 and x86 type having already sold off the PXA devices, there 
was something of a hole. But Silicon Labs seems to have picked up 
significant volume along with NXP rather than Microchip getting 
design conversions. With Atmel Microchip would gain expertise in 
microprocessor fields where it currently has none - ARM9 and AVR32 
specifically. Microchip needs something to compete with NXP in the 
LPC2x ARM7's (Atmels AT91SAM7 family) and the ARM9's like the new 
LPC3x parts (Atmels AT91SAM9 series). It is probably cheaper to buy 
Atmel than to develop yet another new processor family of their own.

John



>--- On Thu, 10/2/08, Wouter van Ooijen <wouter@voti.nl> wrote:
>
> > From: Wouter van Ooijen <wouter@voti.nl>
> > Subject: Re: [EE] Microchip looking to buy Atmel
> > To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." <piclist@mit.edu>
> > Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008, 9:25 AM
> > > It seems Microchip is offering about $2.3bln to buy
> > Atmel. Not sure
> > > what this means for the future of the AVR (probably
> > not much bad,
> > > hopefully means devices stay on the market longer),
> > but it's
> > > definitely interesting.
> >
> > It could mean: ARM chips available from Microchip-direct!
> > That would
> > make me reconsider my current preference for the LPC chips.
> >
> > --
> >
> > Wouter van Ooijen
> >
> > -- -------------------------------------------
> > Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
> > consultancy, development, PICmicro products
> > docent Hogeschool van Utrecht: www.voti.nl/hvu
> >
> > --
> > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
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>
>
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