Atmel vs. PIC: masked versions

Dr. O wrote: : I noticed that there aren't any masked ROM versions of the ATMEL AVR : processors, only Flash ones. This means that PIC has a substantial cost : benefit in consumer electronics, especially large volumes.

Not really true (anymore.) Hence no ROM version of AVR. OTOH, what is true is that the AVR ALU is inherently bigger and more costly than your typical dinosaur...ehhh... accumulator based microcontroller like 8051, HC05 and PIC.

: Do you guys find this a problem?

No. You get what you pay for. But of course, blinken-LEDs is not exactly AVR's prime market... Was there anything else?

Neither are appropriate in most cases..

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

find

If you are really looking at such large volumes that masked ROM is a sensible solution, then you might find that Atmel can put together an ASIC for your application that is cost-effective.

find

And why not? Samsung uses its 8-bit controllers in its microwaves, and Sony does the same thing with their 8-bit MCU's. Neither are more capable than a Microchip or Atmel part IMHO. And MicroChip and Atmel have a sizeable user community and cheap/free development tools.

They are almost always more expensive (per unit, all things such as peripherals considered) than the typical micros used in consumer electronics. The ease of use and cost of the development system is of little significance in such applications; overall production cost is all-important. The low-end PICs (16C54 mask type stuff and their Asian-made clones) have some market share, of course.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

There are many ROM AVRs, a sizeable chunk of AVR business is ROM based. But I think you meant 'merchant AVRs', and there are two reasons for that - Merchant volumes and design cycles do not warrant ROM - Atmel iterate the merchant AVRs too quickly for ROM

Still, I'm sure if you wanted 10M pcs of any AVR in ROM, you could get it.

-jg

find

No it doesn't. Consumer electronics companies calculate total cost and that is higher for ROM chips due to need to throw away bad ROM parts due to changin specs, increased inventory handling etc.

Plenty of AVR users in tne consumer electronics business!

No you would get a factory programmed flash chip with the ISP disabled :-)