Doesn't Nigel have already told you about the 16F88 and 16F819? You should also read the Sticky of this forum about PIC if you have not already done that.

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L.Chung

 

In my opinion both are aquivalent... but (still in my opinion) PIC is more famous among hobyists because lot of technical support is provided, but ATMEL is more robust and adequate to industial purposes.

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Ibrahim Kamal
check my electronics and robotics page: http://www.ikalogic.com/

 

Its funny how thread's like this always generate such global responses!

PIC's are probably the best on the market in terms of affordable MCU's

And at the end of the day, whats more important, the cost of a mcu, or the support available for program/application development?

Microchip recently announced the sale of its 5 Billionth PIC micro, my gosh. Put simply, you will not get more support for development when compared to the PIC micro range.

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Spency.

PIC Micro's - Your mind is the limit

PIC's and interfacing with other devices - a PIC Basic Guide @ digital-diy.net

 

that comfirms 50% of what i've said

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Ibrahim Kamal
check my electronics and robotics page: http://www.ikalogic.com/

 

Obviously this is a pro-Microchip site, so I don't expect this to go far, but I'll give it a try anyway.

How about the Freescale 9S08 family?
You could get something like the MC9S08QG8 for just over $1.
8K flash, 512 ram, ADC, Timers, SCI, SPI, I2C
Built in hardware debug module

Build it yourself USB debugger:
http://forums.freescale.com/freescal...ard.id=OSBDM08
You can find S08 BDMs on the web for less than $40.

FREE special edition Codewarrior professional development tools including FREE C compiler
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/...S-H08-STDED-CX

Microchip is ok (if you use the newer parts designed in this century ), Atmel is good, but Freescale is even better.
I guess you could use the 8051… might as well trade in your car for a horse and buggy while you are at it.

Just my two cents worth

 

Not just this site, but the rest of the world as well - the MicroChip PIC is by far the most popular hobbiest micro-controller. To the extent that PIC has become the common 'name' for any micro-controller - rather like Hoover and vacuum cleaners

No problem with you mentioning Freescale, generally any micro-controller will do the job - but allegedly better device, lower price, makes you wonder why? (although the reason is obvious really).

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PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

 

Nigel, such a statement is blatantly impossible to prove. The markets Atmel and Microchip (just to name two) target are different so you can't compare on a chip sales basis. Atmel's chips are more recent so they're going to have market penetration issues besides, and the hobby market is violently polarized to their preferred products to the exclusion of intelligent discussion. Popularity also has absolutely nothing to do with a device's benefits or problems. I'm not trying to say PIC's aren't great for hobby users and don't have a wide user base. But the raw architectural benefits the AVR's core offers to a hobby user make it better overall buy. I got interested in micro controllers with no knowledge of any architecture and coming from no previous usage of any such devices, I spent about a month looking at what was out there 8051 AVR PIC. I discounted Freescale and a lot of others simply because the user base on the net for the chips isn't large enough, but after all the reading and research from no knowledge, everything I read pointed to AVR for hobby use. Anyone that thinks AVR's don't have enough technical support or resources on the net has obviously not looked recently.

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What different markets do they target?, the AVR was a blatent attempt to grab some of MicroChips market, even down to copying a three letter name. I don't see how either is market specific?.

But it has an awful lot to do with sales figures, and in how profitable the products are - Atmel have to undercut MicroChip prices in order to try and compete. The sales figures speak for themselves.

Again, that's your personal opinion, and nothing else.

'Enough' is a very personal opinion, depending on the individuals requirements - personally I would say the AVR has 'enough', but it's still far less than the PIC support.

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PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

 

Hey ,
have you checked the PIC16F877A,it has all what you need and much more for only US$9. Its programmer can be easily built with a couple of transistors,resistors,capacitors and diodes.Also,a very easy to use C compiler is available,not only for this PIC but for all PIC family.Its free to download and use.You can check that on mikroelektronika website:www.mikroe.com

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Have a nice day.Be happy!!
$ViNkE