Atmel is now Microchip ???

[alin_im]

Hey guys,

Quick question: Did Microchip just bought Atmel ? I am asking this because I entered their site today and I saw that the Atmel logo now has Microchip's near it.

http://www.atmel.com/default.aspx

Alin I.

[Wilksey]

Yup!

http://www.microchip.com/announcements

[Gyro]

There are several long threads on this in the General Chat section, eg:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/atmel-is-microchip/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/microchip-to-acquire-atmel-how-do-you-feel-about-this/

[batteksystem]

Yes, Microchip bought Atmel.

[Psi]

yep, Microchip are hard at work adding silicon bugs to all the AVR range.

[Ian.M]

No. Microchip are generally excellent at keeping old devices in production with original specs.  However their GUI tools and MCU libraries teams are experts at writing code that sucks - cantaloupe through a hosepipe grade - (their command line tools guys are far better) so I'd bet that marketing are pushing mothballing Atmel Studio and porting all AVR toolchains to MPLAB X with Microchip Code Configurator or Harmony compatible libraries that will likely deliver Arduino-like lack of performance and code bloat.   Microchip hardware abstraction layers are generally about as useful and safe as a Ramset nailer DIY modified to drive thumbtacks.

[poorchava]

Well, let's just hope that Microchip adopts AVR as their main microcontroller family. I'm a very big fan of some of their devices like mosget drivers for example, but PICS, especially 8bit ones are a turd...

Sent from my HTC One M8s using Tapatalk.

[Karel]

Nothing wrong with MPLABX and XC32. The Harmony framework on the other hand, is a complete disaster.
I would like to see Atmel studio be replaced with MPLABX. Choosing VS was a big mistake of Atmel.

[dannyf]

let's just hope that Microchip adopts AVR as their main microcontroller family.

I would agree. 8-bit AVRs are much better in terms of coding and peripheral consistency than 8-bit PICs.

Micorchip should have worked harder consolidating their offerings and migrating their customers to PIC24.

[JPortici]

I hope atmel studio dies. a flashy and heavy user interface? you have to register an account to use it? fuck no. let it die.

[Raj]

I hope atmel studio dies. a flashy and heavy user interface? you have to register an account to use it? fuck no. let it die.

but using atmel was easy and cheap as daily ration

  Buy all atmel chips....
Today, I go on shopping rampage 

[krho]

Atmel studio is a days and night in comparison to eclipse and the "price" of tools from other competitors.

[CM800]

I hope atmel studio dies. a flashy and heavy user interface? you have to register an account to use it? fuck no. let it die.

are you kidding me? I love Atmel studio, so much better then CooCox and many of the other units.

I'm a huge fan and user of Visual studio so it works naturally very well for me.

[uncle_bob]

let's just hope that Microchip adopts AVR as their main microcontroller family.

I would agree. 8-bit AVRs are much better in terms of coding and peripheral consistency than 8-bit PICs.

Micorchip should have worked harder consolidating their offerings and migrating their customers to PIC24.

Hi

If you take a look at the "who bought who" and "who's bigger than who where" and "which lines make money" part of it .... The AVR's are at best going to be on life support for existing applications.

Bob

[westfw]

BTW, A while ago I did some "bloat" comparisons between AS and MPLABX.  (Start on a virgin windows VM, check free disk space, install IDE and compilers, check free disk space again, subtract.)  They were about the same size. (3+GB, BTW...)

[EEVblog]

Micorchip should have worked harder consolidating their offerings and migrating their customers to PIC24.

I wouldn't disagree with that. They kept pumping out countless different 8 bit variants.

[EEVblog]

If you take a look at the "who bought who" and "who's bigger than who where" and "which lines make money" part of it .... The AVR's are at best going to be on life support for existing applications.

That would be my guess too.
Any dream that the Atmel fanboys have that Microchip will adopt AVR as their main 8bit platform will likely be in for massive disappointment.

[jnz]

If you take a look at the "who bought who" and "who's bigger than who where" and "which lines make money" part of it .... The AVR's are at best going to be on life support for existing applications.

That would be my guess too.
Any dream that the Atmel fanboys have that Microchip will adopt AVR as their main 8bit platform will likely be in for massive disappointment.

I honestly am not sure what world these people are in. PIC just ate its main competition, and while I'd like to see esp the 8bit line canceled, it's got years left in it now.

The most intersting part isn't the 8bit that PIC will likely be left standing - it's that now Microchip has an ARM line they adopted and a unique crypto-ARM that may have come before or after Atmel. Neither of those things are good signs for PIC24, 33F or 32MX fans.

Not that I'm complaining, Microchip let me down way too many times for me to be a fan of almost anything they offer. In my eyes they literally can only get better.

[JPortici]

Nah, besides the fact that the crypto-arm thing was there months if not years before (at least looking at the datasheets)
microchip's 16 and 32 bit are not going to die anytime soon.
besides the fact that microchip never really abandon a product, it just forces you to a newer, cheaper pin-to-pin and feature compatible chip by increasing the old part's price, there are dspics that have peripherals that you can't find on more than one or two arm products (for example, sent) and have all the usual advandages of the 8 bitters (simpler architecture, easier to write assembly, predictable/fixed latency) but this also applies for all the other 16bit chips in the market, at least those i've dealt with
pic32 of course is another story. revision after revision it seems like there are more problems than solutions.. too bad. infact i'm forcing myself thtough the ordeal of learning to develop with stm32 efficiently for a reason

[uncle_bob]

If you take a look at the "who bought who" and "who's bigger than who where" and "which lines make money" part of it .... The AVR's are at best going to be on life support for existing applications.

That would be my guess too.
Any dream that the Atmel fanboys have that Microchip will adopt AVR as their main 8bit platform will likely be in for massive disappointment.

I honestly am not sure what world these people are in. PIC just ate its main competition, and while I'd like to see esp the 8bit line canceled, it's got years left in it now.

The most intersting part isn't the 8bit that PIC will likely be left standing - it's that now Microchip has an ARM line they adopted and a unique crypto-ARM that may have come before or after Atmel. Neither of those things are good signs for PIC24, 33F or 32MX fans.

Not that I'm complaining, Microchip let me down way too many times for me to be a fan of almost anything they offer. In my eyes they literally can only get better.

Hi

Well, both Atmel and Microchip let me down a *lot* of times over 30 years or so. They both were a design staple for a while. It has been at least 10 years since either one made it into a new design. The Borg ... errr ... ARM empire pretty much took over starting about 15 years ago. We still have legacy designs based on both Microchip and Atmel parts and they do get updated from time to time. Every so often somebody takes a shot at a PIC24 or an Atmel part (that's been a long time) as an alternative. It never ends well.

So no, this is not at all based on love for one outfit and hate for the other. It is simply an observation of how Microchip has operated as they gobbled up other companies. They have done it enough times that the play book is pretty clear. They are *far* from the only ones running the same plays. The "gobble up the competition" approach has been used by a lot of companies over the years. I ummm ..... errrr .... seem to have ... errr .. direct experience of it.. Most people who work in the electronics business have as well.

Bob

[ajb]

let's just hope that Microchip adopts AVR as their main microcontroller family.

I would agree. 8-bit AVRs are much better in terms of coding and peripheral consistency than 8-bit PICs.

Micorchip should have worked harder consolidating their offerings and migrating their customers to PIC24.

Hi

If you take a look at the "who bought who" and "who's bigger than who where" and "which lines make money" part of it .... The AVR's are at best going to be on life support for existing applications.

Bob

Even if they hadn't planned to kill off AVR, this might wind up being a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The mere prospect that the platform may go away is going to make people hesitant to use it in new projects, so sales are going to slip, and it's going to make less sense to hang on to that segment.

[Ian.M]

The odds against 8 bit cross-fertilisation such as a pin & peripheral compatible PIC18mega328P or an AVR16F1xxx range that are drop in replacements for the corresponding PIC16F1xxx enhanced mid range chips except with an AVR core are pretty high - unless Microchip's marketing guys exhibit greater than usual insanity and the board lets the tail wag the dog!

*IF* Microchip release any new AVR core chips, I predict 18 months of pain while they attempt to get stable AVR support in MPLAB X.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

The entire remaining market for 8 bit parts revolves around weird bolt on peripherals for specific markets. There is no real incentive to work on the core. The other alternatives in the market have taken the air out of the room past a pretty low price point. The only work that will be done will be for this or that really big customer who has a very clearly defined need for this or that. Past that point ... not much going to happen. When they are forced to, geometries will bump up a notch and ram and flash will go up. Prices will inch up on all of the old parts year after year. Profit will be made by investing in acquisitions and repeating the same formula.

Bob

[jnz]

The odds against 8 bit cross-fertilisation such as a pin & peripheral compatible PIC18mega328P or an AVR16F1xxx range that are drop in replacements for the corresponding PIC16F1xxx enhanced mid range chips except with an AVR core are pretty high - unless Microchip's marketing guys exhibit greater than usual insanity and the board lets the tail wag the dog!

*IF* Microchip release any new AVR core chips, I predict 18 months of pain while they attempt to get stable AVR support in MPLAB X.

This post made me a little sick. Is there recognized engineer-PTSD? I'm so glad for my mental health I dumped Microchip mcus.

Bob, I get ya. But say what you will about the Borg, the methods WORK. I'm MUCH more productive since switching from a single vendor solution to ARM.

[uncle_bob]

This post made me a little sick. Is there recognized engineer-PTSD? I'm so glad for my mental health I dumped Microchip mcus.

Bob, I get ya. But say what you will about the Borg, the methods WORK. I'm MUCH more productive since switching from a single vendor solution to ARM.

Hi

Relax and be assimilated

The ARM world is far from perfect. I do find that I get a *lot* more done in less time on them. There are still plenty of issues to deal with though. We switched as much for the lower cost as anything else. The faster development cycle / fewer issues stuff just came along for free.

Bob