On May 23, 2009, at 11:45 AM, John Ferrell wrote:

> The Rabbit entry level development kit is available for a limited  
> time at $50 instead of $99.
>
> It looks like a worthwhile subject to pursue for a hobby type guy  
> like me. ..  Should I embrace the diversion or continue limiting my  
> focus to PIC's where I am modestly successful?

I haven't actually USED a rabbit module, but I've eyed them at  
tradeshows/etc..  It has seemed to me:

1) THe rabbits are mostly a module-level product.  The chips are  
massive fine-pitch things basically unusable by hobbyists or even  
small scale pros (196 to 289 ball BGAs for the rabbit-5000 used in the  
sale module.)
2) While they're highly integrated, they're more "microprocessor-like"  
than microcontroller-like (128k ram, 1M flash, external memory buses,  
DMA controllers.)  This could be a good thing, of course.
3) While the price are attractive compared to the features apparently  
present, you can get simpler modules at similar or lower prices, and  
you quickly run into "the $100 paradox" where your system cost  
approaches the point where there are many solutions (including low-end  
desktop PCs.)


> My ventures into the AVR world (Butterfly) and the Zilog kits have  
> not been especially successful!

What went wrong?

BillW

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