On 5/15/2011 7:53 AM, Olin Lathrop wrote:
> Charles Craft wrote:
>   =20
>> Hear, hear! Blind loyalty will screw you every time.
>> Price and availability usually trump other features.
>>     =20
> Actually, they usually don't.
>
> The microcontroller industry is very competitive.  You get about the same
> thing for about the same price from most of the major vendors.  Occasiona=
lly
> one vendor does a particularly good job in one area, but these are usuall=
y
> not overwhelming advantages and are relatively short lived.  The most
> recently offered micro will probably look a little better than competing
> products just because it benefitted from a little bit more advanced
> technology.
>
> Every once in a while a vendor will take a larger step forward and have a
> particular advantage for a while.  For example, the MSP430 had exceptiona=
l
> low power performance when it first came out.  Microchip has since caught=
 up
> with that, but the mystique seems to remain.  Microchip's 24 bit core was
> another larger jump forward.
>
> However, the real issue is investment in the toolchain.  It takes
> significant learning and experience to get really good at a particular
> flavor of microcontroller.  Therefore you pick a micro for the next proje=
ct
> that you are familiar with unless the expected volumes are quite high and=
 a
> competitor has something compelling.  This is rare.
>
> At Embed we have done around 100 PIC projects and have invested in the
> Microchip toolchain accordingly.  While we have no policy to use PIC
> microcontrollers, it usually makes sense for our customers because the
> competitive offerings, while perfectly fine most of the time, are about t=
he
> same.  However, we can hit the ground running with PICs, have learned whe=
re
> the bodies are buried, what to watch out for, and have a relationship wit=
h
> the Microchip people to get support equal to none when we really need it.
> They know us enough so that when we report a problem or ask something, th=
ey
> already know we've read the manual or done the measurement carefully.  We
> can jump right to the meat of the problem with the right people and skip =
the
> usual dance while they do their idiot filtering.  These things all take t=
ime
> and experience to build up, which you wouldn't have the first few project=
s
> you do with a new line of microcontroller.
>
> Microchip also has a few other things going for it.  I'd say it has the
> broadest product line of microcontrollers in the industry, and they have
> been very good about not obsoleting products.  The broad product line mea=
ns
> the toolchain investment can be applied to a wider range or products.  Th=
e
> non-obsolescence means you can feel comfortable designing in their device=
s
> in products you expect to have a long production life.  You can still tod=
ay
> buy a 16C54.  Sure it costs more and does less than just about everything
> else, but for a lot of products saving a couple $$ of production cost isn=
't
> worth a redesign, especially when that may require various certifications
> and re-qualification by customers.
>
> So, it's not about blind loyalty, but rather common sense and the best
> tradeoff for the customer.
>
>
> ********************************************************************
> Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, http://www.embedinc.com/products
> (978) 742-9014.  Gold level PIC consultants since 2000.
>   =20
Microchip is firing on all cylinders now but is only one merger/acquisition
or CEO change away from being a different company. Companies go through
cycles and you have good metrics for measuring their performance.
When they miss one is it a fluke and they'll do better or is it a trend?
The company that today calls itself HP is not the class act that the
Hewlett Packard company was when Bill and Dave ran it.  :-)

w.r.t. price and availability I was thinking more like Maxim and Freescale
that have wiz bang chips but are expensive or back ordered.

chuckc

--=20
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