AVR32 destiny or destination (Ulf Samuelsson RSVP)
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From: vinnie on 16 Jun 2010 23:16 >Hi, > >Can someone (perhaps resident Atmel guru Ulf Samuelsson RSVP) arguably >explain how AVR32 is posioned against competition in terms of market share >and future "road map". I guess I'm asking for a kind of marketing pitch to >convince me that investing money in development tools and time in learning >them is a "good" investment in a long run, in contrast with the same >time/money dilema pertaining ARMs (therefore ***no*** PIC32 dilema here). > >I'm not asking for a ARM vs AVR32 technical dissection(s), although I >wouldn't mind, just some courage to jump into deep AVR32 waters. I still >have a kind of fobia regarding infamous Hitachi's "6 months notice before >EOL". > >-- Reading the responses to this question were really interesting. Thanks for posting it. It sounds like most engineers look at price, package, performance and peripheral mix when picking a micro. All things being equal, a preference for an architecture might end up being a factor - but the core shouldn't be near the top of the list. Atmel would tell you that, but probably not ARM. As for the "infamous" Hitachi EOL notice: do you have a citation? Most every silicon vendor EOLs parts, and Atmel does it just like the others. Sometimes there doesn't seem to be much logic behind the EOLS, but there's usually a strong monetary reason for a supplier to make that kind of call. BTW, usually the EOL date is the last date to order parts - but delivery of parts are usually well beyond those dates. --Vinnie --------------------------------------- Posted through http://www.EmbeddedRelated.com
From: StoneThrower on 18 Jun 2010 09:16 > Reading the responses to this question were really interesting. Thanks for > posting it. It sounds like most engineers look at price, package, > performance and peripheral mix when picking a micro. Thanks noticing it, I am very well aware of ARM, but AVR32 as well, simply being long-time customer of Atmel parts, without intention to become AVR32 evangelist, but strongly inclined towards it. What's particulary of interest to me, is attempt to, at least a bit, understand what's going on in Atmel menager's minds "these days", and how they position actually two competing architectures under the same roof. I would like to see AVR32 goodies like Java interpreter in hw and DSP instructions in the more distant future as well, not to become extinct as a lesser-strong specie, as a proof of strong architecture, and proof of insightful minds of those who are deciding the fate of AVR32. > As for the "infamous" Hitachi EOL notice: do you have a citation? No citations, just a bad taste of former Hitachi and their H8/3xx chips cca. 8 years ago. But, that was former company, IMHO today's Renesas is mostly OK, public and customer relations are fine, chips are fine too, tools has more sense for customers than ever .... at the moment, thou. -- Stonethrower www.dgmicrosys.com
From: -jg on 22 Jun 2010 22:19 On Jun 11, 3:05 am, rickman <gnu...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Jun 9, 12:42 am, -jg <jim.granvi...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > On Jun 4, 12:13 pm,rickman<gnu...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > If I can find an affordable MCU in > > > the right package with a audio quality stereo CODEC, that would solve a problem of mine. > > > Not sure what your 'audio quality' means, but I see freescale have > > just announced an upcoming coldfire+ in 90nm, with 16b adcs and 12b > > dacs, and a not so common spec on the DAC of 6 sigma across a band of > > codes (whatever that is supposed to mean ?!) > > > They say prices start at 99c, but that's not going tobe the 16b ADC > > parts. > > > one quirk is you cannot have USB and 16b ADC > > >http://www10.edacafe.com/nbc/articles/view_article.php?section=ICNews.... > > > -jg > > Sounds interesting enough, but it is only a single ADC. I need stereo > ADCs and DACs. Also, they aren't planning production until middle of > NEXT year! Still a Horizon part, but I see FreeScale have yet another family... ;) http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/homepage.jsp?code=KINETIS&tid=VANKINETIS Data is sparse, but the block diagram shows ADC 16b x2 on the smaller ones and ADC 16b x4 on the Kinetis K60 (and 12b DAC x 2) They also mention a 8/16/32? parallel interface, down to 64 pins, whilst many others only give parallel options on the monster packages. If their PLL works as well as the LPC175x, it may be a better fit for a task we have. The 16b ADC is nice, as is the SDHC. -jg
From: linnix on 23 Jun 2010 12:13 On Jun 18, 6:16 am, "StoneThrower" <digi_64- public[removethis]@yahoo.com> wrote: > > Reading the responses to this question were really interesting. Thanks for > > posting it. It sounds like most engineers look at price, package, > > performance and peripheral mix when picking a micro. > > Thanks noticing it, I am very well aware of ARM, but AVR32 as well, simply > being long-time customer of Atmel parts, without intention to become AVR32 > evangelist, but strongly inclined towards it. > > What's particulary of interest to me, is attempt to, at least a bit, > understand what's going on in Atmel menager's minds "these days", and how > they position actually two competing architectures under the same roof. Three architectures under the same root: AVR, AVR32 and ARM. As a result, Atmel does not offer high end AVR or low end AVR32/ARM. Also, my personal observations with Atmel is that the price/qty curves are very flat. There are not much saving in 10Ku, 1Ku vs. 100 units. Other ARMs (TI/NXP) have more normal price/qty curves.
From: Ulf Samuelsson on 24 Jun 2010 05:40
linnix skrev: > On Jun 18, 6:16 am, "StoneThrower" <digi_64- > public[removethis]@yahoo.com> wrote: >>> Reading the responses to this question were really interesting. Thanks for >>> posting it. It sounds like most engineers look at price, package, >>> performance and peripheral mix when picking a micro. >> Thanks noticing it, I am very well aware of ARM, but AVR32 as well, simply >> being long-time customer of Atmel parts, without intention to become AVR32 >> evangelist, but strongly inclined towards it. >> >> What's particulary of interest to me, is attempt to, at least a bit, >> understand what's going on in Atmel menager's minds "these days", and how >> they position actually two competing architectures under the same roof. > > Three architectures under the same root: AVR, AVR32 and ARM. As a > result, Atmel does not offer high end AVR or low end AVR32/ARM. With the UC3L, SAM3S16 you go down to 16 kB flash and 48 pins. This is about the same size as the smallest XMEGA. I guess you are looking for 32 pin 4-8 kB then. From a cost point of view, the 8 bitters will be cheaper, so there must be a motivation to use a 32 bitter. Obsiously if you are using 1 ku/year, using the same toolset might be one. Then again, at 4 kB, even IAR is for free. > Also > my personal observations with Atmel is that the price/qty curves are > very flat. There are not much saving in 10Ku, 1Ku vs. 100 units. > Other ARMs (TI/NXP) have more normal price/qty curves. Best regards Ulf Samuelsson |