> -----Original Message----- > From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf > Of Xiaofan Chen > Sent: 02 March 2010 11:08 > To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. > Subject: Re: [EE] Low cost 32bit MCU, how low is low > = > On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 6:47 PM, Michael Rigby-Jones > wrote: > > In terms of performance/$ PICs haven't made much sense for quite a long > > time IMO. =A0What they do offer that very few other vendors do is parts= in > > hobby friendly packages and very low pin count parts. > = > I have to agree with this one. For corporate world, The thing Microchip > is good is more on the support and part delivery side. We still see good > support from local Microchip. But from the feedbacks in the forum, > being a bigger companies now, the support standard seems to be falling. > = > I will think Microchip will have to lower the part cost in order to > compete with NXP, Atmel, TI/Luminary and ST. > = > > FWIW we had the TI/Luminary guys in recently and they are developing > > some very exciting parts e.g. M3 with floating point unit, and purely > > FRAM based parts. =A0They also have sub $1 parts coming soon. =A0They a= lso > > have some of the fastest flash memory around, meaning full speed with no > > wait states unlike the STM32 etc. > = > Yeah, TI/Luminary has quite some good parts. We chose to use > STM32 though. Both are very competitive for us. They beat the > offerings from Microchip (PIC24/PIC32) quite well in terms > of performance/price ratio. We have anyway existing investment > on the tool side (IAR EWARM licenses and J-Link JTag debuggers). We are also using the STM32s and are generally happy with them*, but they h= ave some serious competition with TI now. We explained to the TI guys before they came that we were unlikely to chang= e vendors, but they were happy to try and persuade us. Even the ex-CEO of = Luminary came with them, and I have to say he was a very knowledgeable guy. Mike * I'd like to have a few words with whoever decided not to bond out the ADC= Vref pin on the lower pin count packages! =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D This e-mail is intended for the person it is addressed to only. The information contained in it may be confidential and/or protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you must not make any use of this information, or copy or show it to any person. Please contact us immediately to tell us that you have received this e-mail, and return the original to us. Any use, forwarding, printing or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. No part of this message can be considered a request for goods or services. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist