In SX Microcontrollers, SX/B Compiler and SX-Key Tool, mgreen wrote:

Dave,
You might notice that Parallax's BS2pe motherboard (MoBo) does include two AVR microcontrollers.  You might also notice that the level of support provided is minimal.  Parallax does provide a link for the AVR development platform and the source code used with the MoBo, but you're pretty much on your own if you want to do something different.  They also don't sell the AVR as a separate component in their store.

Your particular example for a test stand for rocket motor thrust is a good one for pretty much any solution.  You could have used a 555 timer with an inverter of some kind or use a 556 dual timer and left out the regulator.  You could indeed use an SX as you did or a PIC or AVR, but you could also have used a Stamp (including a BS1) or a Propeller, whatever you had on hand and were comfortable using.  You were making a single unit for short term use, so cost and permanence were not really issues.  You could have built it on a mini-breadboard if you wanted.

You're correct that Parallax will be out of the low-cost small-size microcontroller business when the SX is finally gone.  On the other hand, they can't afford to be in the low-cost small-size microcontroller business just like they're not in the capacitor business or resistor business or 555 timer business.  Like their use of the AVR in the BS2pe MoBo, these are commodity components now and will become only more so in the future.  Others will fill the gap with mass-market books like Don Lancaster's and others' books on op-amps and the 555 timer, maybe all web-based.

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