[sdiy] Microchip to acquire Atmel

[Simon Brouwer]

Hi,

I wonder if you'd miss out much not getting to learn the AVR's "depths". I think
they are not that deep.

Microchip's products on the other hand never lack "depths" (a better term is
stupefying quirks)

Best regards
Simon



> Op 17 februari 2016 om 4:57 schreef rsdio at audiobanshee.com:
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 16, 2016, at 7:50 PM, rsdio at audiobanshee.com wrote:
> > On Feb 16, 2016, at 5:29 PM, David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> wrote:
> >> On Sat, 13 Feb 2016, Neil Johnson wrote:
> >>> Interesting....
> >>> 
> >>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/15/microchip_atmel/
> >> 
> >> Why do I have this cynical suspicion that Microchip will attempt to
> >> sabotage and eventually discontinue the AVR line of microcontrollers?
> > 
> > At first, I was going to ask, "Why would Microchip bother to buy a company
> > for $3.6 billion and then throw their product away?" … but then I realized
> > that Atmel's Flash business alone might be worth all those billions. I guess
> > the real question is whether all of Atmel's other technology is worth $3.6
> > billion without the AVR, or if Microchip actually wants the AVR as well.
> > 
> > I recently asked a friend, "Is AVR even relevant any more now that ARM is so
> > prevalent?" His response was that ARM is primarily a 32-bit architecture,
> > while AVR is 8-bit. The fact that they're both RISC makes them seem
> > interchangeable at the very beginning of a design, although that is only one
> > aspect of comparison. Even when the chips get down to similar prices and
> > packages, sometimes it just makes more sense to design around an 8-bit
> > instead of taking on the complication of a 32-bit architecture.
> > 
> > Considering the difficulties that nearly every compiler has with PIC 8-bit
> > families, the AVR might save Microchip a lot of support issues. They need an
> > 8-bit MCU, so they might as well leverage the more streamlined design. I'm
> > assuming that the AVR compilers aren't as messed up as the PIC compilers.
> > 
> > Brian
> 
> I have to admit that I recently designed a Hammond XK-1 compatible MIDI
> drawbar controller with optional USB-MIDI support and based it on the PIC18
> chip. For years, I'd been waiting for a new project where I could specifically
> choose the AVR to learn its depths. But, when it finally came time to start
> the project, I chose the PIC because I knew that I could get the USB stack
> running with minimal effort and finish the whole project quicker. I hope that
> I didn't just miss my last chance to work with the AVR ;-)
> 
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