Qualcomm wants to buy NXP

[ehughes]

This is unfortunate for me.   I use a lot of Kinetis and LPC parts.     Anytime this happens I immediately do a "new design freeze" and not use anything new from the company for about 2 years....

[nctnico]

When it comes to Qualcomm buying NXP it seems nothing is carved in stone yet.

[benSTmax]

Even if this buyout won't get through (though I don't see any reasons not to), it signals NXP is actively shopping itself around and the long-term availability of their current parts might change depending on whoever is to going to buy them

[nctnico]

OTOH: why buy something to make the products obsolete the next day? IMHO NXP's ARM portfolio is pretty strong and probably has the widest range available from any manufacturer. Even TI doesn't have such a strong line-up. And then there are the 8 and 16 bit processors from formerly Freescale. Try and find a microcontroller NXP doesn't have a competing device for to match it.

[jitter]

Even if this buyout won't get through (though I don't see any reasons not to), it signals NXP is actively shopping itself around and the long-term availability of their current parts might change depending on whoever is to going to buy them

Maybe something similar will happen as when Motorola said goodbye to the simple stuff and OnSemi was born. They're still around...
There are lots of designs still relying on stuff from Philips, now NXP and possibly next Nexperia. It's only the name that changes.
Similarly Atmels serial flash now carries the name Adesto. I haven't seen our customers change a design because of that. So, in the end it depends if the new owner can keep selling enough of the stuff.

[mac.6]

Lot of Freescale/NXP parts have a +10yrs availability, that's mainly required by automotive makers/suppliers. Go around that and it shut you down the whole automotive market in a breeze.

[krho]

This just went downhill. Now the Broadcom wants to buy Qualcomm.

[tszaboo]

That's OK. I was already writing Motorola/Freescale/NXP/Nexperia(?)/Qualcomm in my BOM for those parts.
You know, just to show how ridiculus this is.
Now I will just write Motorola/Freescale/NXP/Nexperia(?)/Qualcomm/Broadcom in it.

[Jeroen3]

The NXP and Qualcomm merge did not continue since the shareholders (many employees) didn't want to sell their shares.
The board can negotiate whatever they want, but if the shareholders don't agree, then nothing happens.

Many employees of NXP/Nexperia hold shares. Part of their reward/retirement program.

[Mr. Scram]

Microchip buying Atmel killed any possibly of our using AVR-8 microcontrollers.  I am currently trying to decide of I need to design out everything made by Linear Technology.

Why does that prevent you using AVR chips?

[mac.6]

The NXP and Qualcomm merge did not continue since the shareholders (many employees) didn't want to sell their shares.
The board can negotiate whatever they want, but if the shareholders don't agree, then nothing happens.

Many employees of NXP/Nexperia hold shares. Part of their reward/retirement program.

Well it's mostly the EU veto that held the merger. Now it is supposed to be resumed the rest is a matter of price (and a big hand sold its share friday on qcom/brdcom rumor).

[tszaboo]

That's OK. I was already writing Motorola/Freescale/NXP/Nexperia(?)/Qualcomm in my BOM for those parts.
You know, just to show how ridiculus this is.
Now I will just write Motorola/Freescale/NXP/Nexperia(?)/Qualcomm/Broadcom in it.

And maybe Mitsubishi/Hitachi/NEC/Intersil/Renesas.

I wouldn't use any parts from those company as a matter of principle. I dont like:
NDA walling crucial information
Not having EU suppliers
Providing shit support to the west

And please understand, even if they dont do this anymore, it will take a decade or more for me to change my mind about companies.

[David Hess]

Microchip buying Atmel killed any possibly of our using AVR-8 microcontrollers.  I am currently trying to decide of I need to design out everything made by Linear Technology.

Why does that prevent you using AVR chips?

Why accept the risk that Microchip will discontinue them or their support in any way?  And if Microchip does not, why accept that risk of others doing so?

It adds another reason to select ARM instead of AVR for a new design.

[Mr. Scram]

Why accept the risk that Microchip will discontinue them or their support in any way?  And if Microchip does not, why accept that risk of others doing so?

It adds another reason to select ARM instead of AVR for a new design.

Considering AVR is used in a number of popular products which make money, it seems unlikely that Microchip will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. However, whatever you think of that, going for an ARM alternative gives you no additional guarantees. There is nothing to prevent those manufacturers to pull the plug on the chip you use. Judging by the experiences of others, that's actually what happens regularly.

I understand you want some guarantees, but I don't think it makes sense to look for them where there are none.

[David Hess]

Considering AVR is used in a number of popular products which make money, it seems unlikely that Microchip will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. However, whatever you think of that, going for an ARM alternative gives you no additional guarantees. There is nothing to prevent those manufacturers to pull the plug on the chip you use. Judging by the experiences of others, that's actually what happens regularly.

I understand you want some guarantees, but I don't think it makes sense to look for them where there are none.

But with ARM alternative ARM based processors are available from many sources and the investment into ARM development is maintained to some extent.

I do not doubt that Microchip will continue to produce existing AVR products including any which are still in development but until there is evidence of continued development, I am leery of investing in AVR.  For those currently using AVR, this is largely irrelevant.

[nctnico]

Considering AVR is used in a number of popular products which make money, it seems unlikely that Microchip will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. However, whatever you think of that, going for an ARM alternative gives you no additional guarantees. There is nothing to prevent those manufacturers to pull the plug on the chip you use. Judging by the experiences of others, that's actually what happens regularly.

I understand you want some guarantees, but I don't think it makes sense to look for them where there are none.

But with ARM alternative ARM based processors are available from many sources and the investment into ARM development is maintained to some extent.

Actually the processor core is the least interesting part of a microcontroller. The compiler deals with that. What makes all the difference are the peripherals and how they are connected to the pins. Changing a microcontroller from ARM to a MIPS core is just a matter of recompiling the code. Changing peripherals and pins means re-writing the drivers and changing the PCB. ARM has tried to come up with their own software eco-system (CMSIS) but that has gotten very little traction by the microcontroller manufacturers besides some very basic stuff to enable/disable interrupts (which are just a few macros to inline some assembly code).