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EEVblog #41 – Pigs fly at Microchip in HD
Posted on November 4th, 2009 18 commentsSee Dave in glorious HD-ish, Microchip PIC talk, and Damocles the flying pig takes flight.
18 responses to “EEVblog #41 – Pigs fly at Microchip in HD”
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Always remember that EVERY CEO can and will tell you their company has a bright future.
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True, but in the case of Microchip, if you look at the state of the market market, their competitors, and their position, I think there’s actually some true in it!
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The 50Hz noise comes in only if I use the camera charger, so will have to avoid that in the future.
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Alessandro November 4th, 2009 at 09:22
And also fix some autofocus problem during the view… explecially in the first minute…
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flolic November 4th, 2009 at 10:05
Also, audio is very ‘thin’, you don’t have any low spectrum. Maybe you should use external microphone or post process the audio?
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Your eyes are very red in the video. But other than that, the video is 5 stars.
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ROFLMAO at the Microchip reply, I think that was on par with Dibert. Mr Head is a real PHB lol
Kat.
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Dennis November 4th, 2009 at 17:40
Did anyone else spot the pig when it wasn’t flying around Dave’s head? it’s there in ep 42 as well:D
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Brian Hoskins November 4th, 2009 at 22:02
Hi Dave,
One comment about Hi-Tech’s PICC compiler:
I’d have to agree with you that Hi-Tech’s PICC compiler is absolutely brilliant (and I wasn’t actually aware that Microchip had bought them out) but I recently moved away from the PICC, mainly because it’s not very attractive in terms of pricing for the hobbyist. If you’re a business it’s probably not too expensive, but for an individual the price is pretty damn steep. Sure you can get the lite version for free (which is actually what I was using before I switched, and the only thing they take out of the lite version is optimisation which probably doesn’t make much difference for people like me), but sooner or later you find that you really want to use a specific PIC device and it isn’t supported by the Lite version of the software, which is an enormous pain in the butt. For ages I put up with choosing my devices such that they matched the compatibility list of the PICC-Lite compiler, but it really started to get on my nerves and yet I couldn’t justify paying that enormous price tag to get the standard or pro version.
So, in light of this, I’ve now switched to the BoostC compiler. It’s actually a very comprehensive compiler, and although I’m still getting used to it, so far I think it’s pretty good! I’m using it on my current project so perhaps I’ll let you know how I get on with it long term
.I was actually thinking of releasing my current project as a kit people can buy (when it’s done) and to that end I’ve purchased the pro version, which has no restrictions at all and allows commercial use (even though I’m only doing it as a hobby really) and all of this for about $150 I think. Well within the reach of us hobbyists. There are even cheaper versions too, if you don’t want the commercial licence.
So far thumbs up to the BoostC in terms of bang for buck in my opinion.
Keep up the blog – it’s going well.
Brian
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Brian Hoskins November 4th, 2009 at 22:08
Just a follow up point that I forgot to make – I really think Hi-Tech are missing a trick with their pricing options. The thing is that I’m a hobbyist in my own time, but I work as an Electronics Engineer in the trade full time. I’m sure the same can be said for a lot of hobbyists.
Now, if my company ever come to me and say “right, we need to buy a PIC C compiler to do some work with”, who am I going to recommend? Well, the one I’m used to using of course!!!
Which one will I be used to using? The one I use for my hobby projects at home. So, Hi-Tech really should make their pricing attractive to hobbyists! They can keep their high price for the commercial version, fair enough, but give us hobbyists something we can use for cheap!
I found that the supported devices for the lite version was too restrictive. I think they should open this up to us at a more affordable price. Then perhaps I’d be recommending PICC to my bosses, because it really is a fantastic compiler in all honesty.-
@Brian
Yeah, I have to agree, the Hitech PICC compiler is only really priced for the professional user, a lower price would make it more attractive to a lot more users. But I guess the problem is guessing what point that is.
As you’ve mentioned there are other more attractively priced compilers out there for the hobbyist, so this makes it hard to price the superior HiTech product to compete with them without pissing people off.
But I do think they have the strategy right in having the free compiler only limited in optimisation, not in device range or memory size etc, and I told the CEO as such.Steve Sanghi has a clear opinion on development tools, you have to price them well enough so that the division stands on it’s own two feet financially, so the bean counters can’t come along and see the tools don’t make any money and hence won’t face to chop come end of year. I probably should have commented on this in the blog as well.
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About the USB connection on your base stand for the camcorder. It looks like a standard USB micro AB or possibly a micro B connector:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Types-usb_new.svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus
This is the new standard and will be very common on future cellphones etc.
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Andrew November 5th, 2009 at 05:39
I am a little bit disappointed because of your Microchip competitor bashing. That sounded too much like you wanted to do the Microchip CEO a favor by repeating the Microchip party line.
Microchip got a bloody nose when they tried to buy Atmel. And for sure the Microchip CEO will spin the events in his favor. Hint: If Atmel has so little to offer, why would Microchip want buy them in the first place?
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@Andrew
I am not spinning the Microchip line, nor am I unfairly bashing their competitors, I’m just telling it like it is. The fact is Atmel and the others are losing money and not doing that well, Microchip on the other hand are pretty stable, I knew this before I spoke to the CEO, I just figured it was appropriate time to mention it.
People keep asking me which micro they should chose, well, Atmel make fine products, as do TI and many others, but some people may want to factor in a companies market position and stability into the equation, hence the comment on Atmel.
Take it any way you like, but I ain’t no fanboy, I bash everyone equally. Microchip do however get my respect for their response. I’m sure I’ll have something to bitch about with Microchip again, no doubt.The fact is, if I say anything good about a company or a product, I’ll get accused of being a fanboy or being manipulated. And if I say anything bad I’ll be accused of unfairly bashing them by the fanboys, I can’t win. So I’ll just continue to not give a stuff and give my own opinion! :->
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I’m not sure I agree with Microchip’s assessment of their own position within the microcontroller segment. I think, both Freescale and Reneasas are larger companies and both seem to have recent new 32-bit offerings.
Having said that, I am very keen to get my hands on a PIC32 for the MIPS architecture. I hope that the acquisition of Hi Tech won’t mean that support for GCC falls by the wayside. Any thoughts on how the HT compiler compares against the alternatives? I always found GCC’s optimisation for ‘lesser’ architectures to be pretty woeful, though I would expect MIPS 4K to be a bit more robust as it’s still currently used in the real world.
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ATTACK OF THE FLYING PIGS!!
I want 10,000 WOOOO!!! xD
*just spilt a box of M3 washers everywhere*
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Daniel M. November 4th, 2009 at 07:59