On Feb 6, 2011, at 4:24 PM, Oli Glaser wrote:

> From a larger perspective I guess the cost is usually balanced somehow
> anyway - if the IDE/software utilities are free the chips (or =20
> something
> - dev boards, programmers etc) will (probably) cost more, and vice =20
> versa.

Also, I'd bet that if you're a big player, microchip will cut you a =20
deal on development tools (free!) with some sort of commitment to use =20
their products.  That seems to be the case with other vendors, where =20
it makes a bigger difference (when you have a compiler that costs a =20
couple $K per user, and a "potential" user community of several =20
thousand engineers, it gets complicated.) (This of course, means =20
hiring someone whose main job is negotiating with vendors.)

BillW

--=20
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