What is your choice other than AVR & PIC and Why?

[microkid]

I am eager to know, what would be your choice if you have to select a micro other than AVR & PIC.

How do you select the micro,   for example: tools, availability, support, cost and ease of work?

MicroKid

[parallaxis]

My "other choices" are x51, because x51 is an industrial standard, and ARM, because of ARM's power.

[sgoum]

I use psoc uC from Cypress.
They have analog modules integrated so the need for external components  is dramaticaly reduced

[Walkura]

At work we use the st7lite series a lot .
Its programmable with Realizer so that saves the trouble of coding .
Further its cheap and adequat for our needs .

[mmladenovic]

PIC is much better 

[microkid]

I found only a few options other than pic & avr.

I got a new view about 51 after posting (previously i am using 51s)

MicroKid

[Biggles]

I see you asked for micro alternatives.. while not strictly a micro, they certainly can perform like one.. check out FPGA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array

"A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is a semiconductor device that can be configured by the customer or designer after manufacturing—hence the name "field-programmable". To program an FPGA you specify how you want the chip to work with a logic circuit diagram or a source code in a hardware description language (HDL). FPGAs can be used to implement any logical function that an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) could perform, but the ability to update the functionality after shipping offers advantages for many applications.

FPGAs contain programmable logic components called "logic blocks", and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects that allow the blocks to be "wired together"—somewhat like a one-chip programmable breadboard. Logic blocks can be configured to perform complex combinational functions, or merely simple logic gates like AND and XOR. In most FPGAs, the logic blocks also include memory elements, which may be simple flip-flops or more complete blocks of memory."

[dennis78]

8051 is not bad MCU. It is old architecture, but i make/see much very complex projects. Just constructor imagination is limit. FPGA is little complex than MCUs and more "special". I think that MCU's are better solution even if performance require FPGA(<1% in "normal" projects). If you are "home constructor", FPGA board is difficulty making than MCU. I think that AVR is on TOP. With AVR you can make  combinational logic much faster than other MCU (AVR has ~1MIPS/MHz). Sometime it can be very useful(with AVR you can make very fast combinational logic without PAL/GAL/... gates). AVR architecture is much natural than PIC. More registers, not confusing with "banks", school primer RISC machine. Very effective cpu. Periferals support is equal with Mictrochip's IC's (or maybe better). Im not expert for PIC, but i think that all arguments are on side AVR.

p.s. Type of MCU's isn't imortant. You imagination is on first place. Other...   

[embromation]

p.s. Type of MCU's isn't imortant. You imagination is on first place. Other...   

Is true!
Cool!

[microkid]

Hai dennis78

Your comment is true. I started with 8051. I Love AVR a lot & still working with AVR.

The thought of going for a new micro came when a news hit that atmel is going into the hands of microchip(I dont know truth behind it).

I tried PIC but it seems that it has a lot of limitations.

Can anybody suggest what would be the better option other than pic & AVR.

MicroKid

[alien]

Hi Microkid,

no need to worry (about atmel going in hands of microchip),Atmel rejected their proposal.......

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/corporate/view_detail.asp?FileName=AtmelBoardofDirectorsResponse_10_29.html

[Biggles]

I tried PIC but it seems that it has a lot of limitations.

What limitations?

[zmakvek]

What about Freescale MCUs like s12(x) and coldfire? 

[free]

What about Freescale MCUs like s12(x) and coldfire? 

What is the good compiler for them and easy to use?

[chyun3]

Hi,

I started with 8051, after that i worked on PIC, currently my company using AVR...

My experience is that is that 8051 provided me a good fundamental in microcontroller.

As a student, i prefer PIC because i can easily access the resources, free samples(***very important), good application notes from basic to advance, cheap development tools (i like my PicKit).

Currently working as an engineer, my company is using the AVR. Frankly speaking, the AVR resources is much less than Microchip PIC. Whenever i start to learn something new, i would refer back to PIC application notes because the AVR applications note is too brief. And the AVR samples is harder to apply, i have to go through the distributors, they will ask a lot of questions, and after that you may even didn't get the samples (***strange). However i have to admit that AVR is much easier to use than Microchip.

My conclusion is .... I prefer MICROCHIP PIC...

[newboy]

Yes .. also I am.

AVR is very difficult to get sample ... so is hard to start as I'm not rich person.

Also a lot of expertist (hobbiest) and resources to guide on learning PIC.

 

[zmakvek]

What is the good compiler for them and easy to use?

There is a free edition of CodeWarrior for them, it can be found on official Freescale website. I think it is easy to use for a beginner like me.

[zenzehar]

i prefer to use PIC because it can work in high frequency range than avr and this is more practical for indusrial purposes .. while coding became just a joke using Flowcode ... wich can program AVR or pic or even ARM at the same easy simple and effecient way

[gem1144aaa]

hi

if you can master design of systems using pic range 16 - 18 -24 - 32 then you need nothing else unless if you design pdas or mobile phones you will need the power of arm micro specially arm9 and 11

[spl]

I think AVR cost is lower than PIC , but for the PIC have a lot of technical guide document
more than AVR . The other hand in the real market place , i think the mass production need the cost.
I have found that the old 51 core still in production line and in many IC chip company. This reason
make me think about which is the winner in the market place , will be the good choice....
yes , it's look like both AVR and PIC have build there own mcu core. I still don't know finally who is
better . My idea may be select some core which will be the standard.

[microkid]

sorry for delayed entry.

Actually, Most of you misunderstood my question. I asked, what are the other choices if i dont want an AVR or PIC.  My entry to the world of micro is with 51s. After that i had turned my head into AVR as i need more facilities ( which is cheaper than PIC here). As a designer i need to compromise with my customers. They need a new micro other than PIC or AVR. Now i have to get ready with a new chip.

That's why i posted here

MicroKid

[spl]

Oh , My i suggest is the ST7 core, I have some project  using ST7 MCU  with 24Hr. Industrial environment data logger.
More than 100 MCU logger unit , 3 year ago Now it's still running.  The failure about  5  MCU breakdown per year.

  I still looking for the new chip. If it can be the better than  this MCU , The  reliability is  the most important.
AVR is something that i try to test soon.

[edi14_10]

Yes .. also I am.

AVR is very difficult to get sample ... so is hard to start as I'm not rich person.

Also a lot of expertist (hobbiest) and resources to guide on learning PIC.

 

Sorry but i dont agree. first, i start by using PIC for one year, but after that i use avr for all of my project. the first reason is AVR is more and more cheaper than PIC. for example u can compare PIC16F876 with ATMega8. same feature with almost same peripheral inside the microcontroller. in my country PIC16f876 can cost until $6 and for ATMega8 just only $1.5

[vovchik02]

Hitachi-Renesas make interest H8 uC line.
From common MCU to DSP uC
http://tw.renesas.com/fmwk.jsp?cnt=h8_family_landing.jsp&fp=/products/mpumcu/h8_family

[Gerry0]

sorry for delayed entry.

Actually, Most of you misunderstood my question. I asked, what are the other choices if i dont want an AVR or PIC.  My entry to the world of micro is with 51s. After that i had turned my head into AVR as i need more facilities ( which is cheaper than PIC here). As a designer i need to compromise with my customers. They need a new micro other than PIC or AVR. Now i have to get ready with a new chip.

That's why i posted here

MicroKid

Your question is not so simple to answer, because it depends of many things. You should look for a micro which can be found easily and surely in your country, with good tools at a price right for you. With good support and information. What is good for to many people in certain country, not necesarily must work for other places. My second choice after PICs is Motorola HC08, because I have hardware tools for it, and actually they are not so expensive, they have a good support and a lot of applications brochures.