gnupic: Re: [gnupic] pic -> avr?
Subject:
Re: [gnupic] pic -> avr?
From:
Chen Xiao Fan ####@####.####
Date:
28 Aug 2005 04:30:59 +0100
Message-Id: <3B8AEFFADD3DD4118F8100508BACEC2C0A2890F4@spex>
Are you using it for hobbyist project? If yes there is
not much problem to switch to AVR. The only obstable may
be to get samples. Microchip has a much better sampling
program.
Programmers are very cheap to build for AVR and you will
not have problems of JDMs under PIC even if you are using
simple programmers for AVR.
AVR-GCC are excellent open source tool chain under Linux and
Windows. AVR development under Linux is much more smooth
than PIC under Linux.
AVR open source community are also quite active. AVR-GCC and
AVR-libc-devel mailing list and AVRfreak forum are all excellent
places to go. There are as much (maybe more) AVR examples
on the net as PIC. PIC18F samples are much less than AtMega.
SDCC has a long way to go to be as good as AVR-GCC.
You can use JTAG debugging interface, again not so expensive
to build a JTAG debugger for AVR. MPLAB ICD2 debugger is good
but may not be as good as JTAG for higher end AVRs.
If you want to use AVR for production, please do not switch.
Atmel is one of the worst company to work with if your
annual quantity is not in millions. Avoid them as much as
possible for business development. They obsolete the chips
too fast. They will supply chips to bigger customers first.
If there are other chips like flash earn more money for them
they will reduce production of AVRs and produce Flashes instead.
As a chip AVR may be better than PIC16/18. As a company Atmel
is a much worse company to work with than Microchip.
Regards,
Xiaofan
----- Original Message -----
From: "David McNab" ####@####.####
Newsgroups: gmane.comp.hardware.microcontrollers.gnupic
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 9:34 AM
Subject: pic -> avr?
> Hi all,
>
> I'm interested in hearing from people who use (or have used) both PIC
> and AVR devices.
>
> Particularly, 18Fxxx PICs versus ATMega32, since they have some
> similarities such as 32k program memory and 40-pin DIP availability.
>
> I've only been using PIC, and have got pretty comfortable with a range
> of PIC devices - programming them, using them in hardware, and writing
> software for them etc.
>
> However, some people have been urging me to switch to AVR devices
> instead, arguing that the AVR architecture and instruction set are way
> superior.
>
> Is AVR really worth the switch, given that I'll need to:
> - build a new programmer board
> - build test project boards
> - get used to new toolchains and instruction set?
>
> What are the practical pros and cons of AVR versus PIC?
>
> --
> Cheers
> David
