AVR-Chat

Hi Brian,

 

I started off with the PIC myself. I chose it because I could buy a cheap
starter kit and start programming it easily. I then started using it in my
work place and we purchased an ICE for it. For hobby use I was finding
debugging a major issue without the ICE and I started to look around for
something else. We had been using the National Semi COP8 and that had a
cheap emulator but the cost of the compiler put me off of it. I then
discovered the AT902313 and I found that I could by a cheapish emulator, the
ICE200 and it could be used with the larger IC's like the 8515 at the time.
I then progressed to the Mega devices and bought the JTAG ICE and then
finally the JTAG ICE Mk II and have never looked back. If you use the AVR
devices without the ICE, then you will not want to do debugging without one
after you have. I know a lot of guys who programme without and put in things
like toggling IO pins to show position of code but when you want to check
the value of a variable and don't have a STDIO to print to, you will soon
see what I mean. What I am trying to say is that the AVR has some excellent
priced emulation tools that cover more devices than the PIC does.

 

I still use the AVR devices for all the small projects. There are some other
great devices out there but the cost of development is a little on the high
side. For me, the initial cost of the Codevision compiler and the yearly
support has been worth it for over 8 years now. I have looked at the PIC
again and again but the lack of low cost emulation (there are emulators but
they don't cover all the devices, where my JTAG ICE now also covers the XMEG
and the AVR32 devices) has put me off them. Also the fact that the
architecture is not ideal for C and a decent compiler for it is still
expensive.

 

The PIC has the advantage that nearly all the electronics magazines do
articles on it so that is maybe why it is more popular.

 

If you look around the web at projects for both, you will probably find that
most PIC projects are in either PIC Basic or assembler, whereas I have seen
a lot more in C now for the AVR. WINAVR is a nice capable free compiler if
you don't need a lot of libraries to get you going.

 

The above is just my opinion and in the past I have managed to convert a
number of PIC users over to the AVR based on the above.

 

Dave.

 

From: AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of blue_eagle74
Sent: 21 December 2009 09:50
To: AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AVR-Chat] magazine

 

  

I have been reading the circuit celler and nuts and volts. It seems that
alot of projects are for the PIC. Is the PIC better to use? Is there a
magazine mainly for the AVR that I don't know about? I'm not asking which is
best but why all the PIC projects? To me the AVR is alot easier and cheaper
to work with.

Brian



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