I share your frustration regarding the AVR tools…
I’ve worked for 5 years in an embedded development company using AVR processors and Kanda tools everyday from 9 to 17:00 sometimes you could sit a whole day doing nothing because your tools decided to strike on you. We where six on the office and everyone of us have had those problems at least once a month, think about the cost of having engineers sitting on their ass doing nothing because of bullshit tools…
Today I run my own business doing practically the same as I did before and I still have those problems from time to time, I’ve tried a lot of alternatives to the AVR such as PIC, Zilog, OKI, LPC ARM’s and MSP430 but even though I have tried all these processors and wasted A LOT of time trying, I always fall back to AVR as my 5 year experience means that I can get the job done “of the back” always knowing that I’m doing the right thing from the start… Starting a new project requiring PCB artwork with a new processor can cost you a shit load of problems and money, Been there done that and paid the cheque ! For me trying out the LPC2106 for a new project became my worst nightmare as it turned out there where a lot of internal “bugs” in the processor such as the ADC/IO port that couldn’t be used digitally when also used with Analog signals not to mention a useless internal reset circuit that would latch up the device… and a lot of misunderstandings with the SPI port … I cant even assemble my thoughts about all the problems I’ve had with that one… I ended up designing an AVR board in my holiday having the board made ASAP and mounted at the cost of a Boeing 747…
What I’m saying is … AVR has arrived to stay, there’s no evidence that they would stop production or any processors taking its throne as the “king of 8bits” also there’s an AVR for almost every project I’ve ever had, and I’ve actually found a reliable solution to my problems which is having a separate VIA EPIA (a very small size computer) that is used ONLY as a programming device its placed inches from my regular pc and I can switch my screen from my regular pc to the EPIA with a monitor switch box at the push of a button having the EPIA already set up for programming from the network drive where I compile my project…
This works for me and It might work for you!
L. Madsen