<html><head></head><body><div style="font-family: Verdana;font-size: 12.0px;"><div>32 vs. 8 bit micro:<br/>
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Right. I've often heard this "waste" argument, and wonder *what* exactly is wasted and how.</div>
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If you're thinking in silicon complexity, it may be conceptual, abstract waste - but you're not doing that, you're using it.</div>
<div>A more modern micro like that will probably be *less* wasteful wrt power consumption, and depending on specific application, even on the engineering effort part (debatably - more complex MCU may need more complex setup, and if you're not using a configurator tool and init code generator, then it may be so).<br/>
What I mean is, those more modern micros are easier to program for in some ways:<br/>
- more program memory and RAM means less need to squeeze things<br/>
- same goes for more speed, depending on exact models<br/>
- even innocuous seeming stuff like GPIO has improved: double, dedicated set/reset registers and bitbanding to independently change one single pin, in an atomic operation<br/>
- higher timer / PWM resolution doesn't hurt anyone?<br/>
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I bet there are more things I'm not aware of. I've never used 8 MCUs, only read about them & comparisons.</div>
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Which looks to me like: less worry / need for optimization, for a comparable price - with the tendency of becoming lower... wouldn't be surprized if 32 bitters can be obtained for less than 8 bitters, with similar overall set of peripherals.<br/>
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Getting a product done doesn't always have to be a sport - being "lazy" can be a good thing?</div>
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Intuitively it may seem like "waste", but again - nothing is really wasted in price, effort or othwerwise. (given my premises details aren't wrong)<br/>
Maybe there's even more functionality with a similar amount of physical silicon material because of finer structures (? I don't know about the physics much)<br/>
Where is the waste, where does it hide?<br/>
"It's all in your head", I dare say :D</div>
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Now go spank me with details - a hobbyist with chaotic observation fragments forming ideas and more opininons than he probably should have :P</div>
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<div style="margin:0 0 10px 0;">On Tue, Nov 12, 2019 at 03:14:47PM +0000, Tom Wiltshire wrote:<br/>
> ..because throwing a 32-bit chip at a job like this is a total waste? Even the tiniest 8-bit PIC isn’t really breaking a sweat doing stuff like this. You could do it on one of the little 6-pin SOT PIC10F chips.<br/>
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Right, but when an STM32F103 on a wee board is £2 and an off-brand<br/>
Arduino clone is £5, you may as well throw brute force at it.<br/>
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--<br/>
Gordonjcp</div>
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