AVR-Chat

On Dec 20, 2009, at 9:19 PM, Dave McLaughlin wrote:

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


Do you say PIC is more popular because you see it in magazines, or because it is more popular it is in more magazines?

I strongly suspect if one looks under the covers one would find Microchip is generous with support and other goodies (including cash) to known published developers. Support for the little guy is something Microchip figured out at least 15 years ago.

There is an entire industry built around authoring magazine articles featuring products from manufacturers who will then pay $50 and up for mention of their products. In many fields the reviewer is given the merchandise for free in exchange for a published review or mention. If the review is not favorable then that author no longer gets new stuff to review.

Back in the dark ages Motorola dominated the microcontroller market with HC05 and HC11. But it was difficult to get parts or support. Even those who were known to ship 1E6 MCU's per year had to beg for allocation. When one could buy PIC CPU's from DigiKey or Mouser for only a phone call, the only source of Motorola chips was through a formal distributor. And only after the local Motorola office approved.

Atmel was slower to recognize Microchip's marketing techniques. The doofus at Atmel who approves the cartoon superhero ads needs to find another job. The AVR Dragon, and finally removing the 32k limit, is the 2nd best marketing move Atmel has ever made. Their best move was whatever they did to get the level of support in gcc that we now enjoy.

Motorola spun off their microprocessors and created Freescale who is doing a bit better but has missed the boat they once owned.

--
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@HiWAAY.net
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Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.