The Butterfly & Zilog seemed to lack any advantage over the PIC's and I am pretty well prepared to work with PIC's. It is more a matter of priorities than anything else. I get more done if I keep my focus on the MicroChip parts. John Ferrell W8CCW "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke ...."The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." MARGARET THATCHER http://DixieNC.US ----- Original Message ----- From: "William "Chops" Westfield" To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 4:16 PM Subject: Re: [PIC] Rabbit: Compare/Contrast? > > 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 > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist