Atmel Bought by Microchip

Because the more familiar you are with the x86 architecture, the less comfortable you are with it.

It could be argued that they'd be nowhere without AMD.

Il 29/06/2016 00:55, rickman ha scritto:

I was a fan of Atmel AVRs and SAM D2x with all the ecosystem (Atmel Studio 7, Atmel Software Framework, free compilers, ...).

However I think Microchip purchased Atmel to kill it. Atmel online support doesn't work anymore. Atmel MCU prices seem increasing.

Too bad, I think I'll switch to ST and/or NXP.

Whose online support *does* work? I can't run synthesis in the latest update of the Lattice tools and support can't even seem to understand a simple question of "what does error code 3 mean"?

The AVR architecture isn't all that great and the framework is somewhat less great. AVR peripherals are quite nice, though.

"It" meaning Atmel? Nope. Meaning "AVR", perhaps (to probably). THe larger PICs are dead, IMO. A bit late. Though MicroChip is smart enough to make money where there is money to be made.

To spite your face?

Before Atmel was bought from Microchip, I contacted directly Atmel support (through my Atmel section of their website, "Open a support case") and some guys helped me. The answers arrived about after 2-3 working days.

Now it seems the Atmel support can't be contacted anymore.

I worked with PIC and AVR and IMHO AVR is much better.

They aren't so great, but usable. Anyway you can use gcc compiler (with avr-libc) with your preferred tool.

Yes.

Microchip will kill AVR and many things related to Atmel: free gcc compilers and tools, low cost debugger/programmers, mainly low cost devices.

I don't like Microchip support, tools, technical supporto, sales approach. Nothing.

Talk about damning with faint praise...

Me thinks, you resemble this to the which is better Cyanide or Arsenic...

Actually, I don't think AVR is all that bad. The lack of 16 bit operations is a PITA, but the gcc port is well done. Maybe the compilers for PIC have improved (yikes, it's been 10 years since I compated AVR and PIC), but the PIC compilers used to be dreadful.

I just struck me that saying something is better than PIC is like saying somerthing is "more fun than passing a kidney stone".

The yardstick these days for small/cheap MCUs is probably Cortex-M0 -- or even the venerable MSP430.

There are times when listening to a boring friend I wish I would get a kidney stone... You never half to apologize when you are passing a kidney stone.

I assume you "bought _by_".

That's to be expected in such an upheaval. MicroChip support has been far better than Atmel though, as a large (and bleading edge) customer I could get hold of someone in Atmel anytime I needed it (not always a "good" answer).

Perhaps but AVR has no reason for being. Any new customer has to have their head examined.

...except for all the bugs and incompatibilities in the new releases. I think they use Xilinx' software development group. ;-)

I don't see any of the above to be true. Well, the AVR part probably is. It's superfluous. I don't see them forcing expensive tools down the throats of 8-bit micro developers.

I'm exactly the opposite. I like their support better and the company is run *far* better. Atmel dropped the ball several times on their ARM M7 rollout. I think MicroChip will listen to our needs better, too.

Can you explain that?

Sure. There are better alternatives.

New information: Microchip is significantly increasing AVR development. Go figure.

That's not a very informative answer. Concrete suggestions would be helpful. ;-)

The sessions at their summer program include AVR and Cortex M7.

I'm optimistic (don't care that much about AVR but some folks do).

--sp

"Better" in what way?

I guess they know a winner when they see it.

If you can't find them, you need your head examined. ;-)