Micrium acquired by Silicon Labs

[engineer_in_shorts]

Developed using uC/OSII and liked it a lot, used it on a project where the micro was not yet decided.

But now Si labs own Micrium, do they not know that the main reason for buying an RTOS or driverstacks instead of using the micro vendors is so that you are independent from micro vendor? I don't see why one would choose it now.

[coppice]

Developed using uC/OSII and liked it a lot, used it on a project where the micro was not yet decided.

But now Si labs own Micrium, do they not know that the main reason for buying an RTOS or driverstacks instead of using the micro vendors is so that you are independent from micro vendor? I don't see why one would choose it now.

Spot on. There have been a lot of cross platform RTOS, graphics and other software packages bought up by ARM MCU vendors. Don't these people realise that the market is demanding ARM cores in their MCUs for the illusion of being able to swap MCUs easily? The people with that mentality really don't want a locked in software package.

[Dielectric]

Argh.  How long until SiLabs drops support for everything that isn't theirs?

We got pretty boned when uChip bought Hi-Tech and killed compiler support for everything not-a-PIC.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Argh.  How long until SiLabs drops support for everything that isn't theirs?

We got pretty boned when uChip bought Hi-Tech and killed compiler support for everything not-a-PIC.

A counter example is Keil. Even after they were bought by ARM they retained support for C166, 8051, etc.

[engineer_in_shorts]

A counter example is Keil. Even after they were bought by ARM they retained support for C166, 8051, etc.

True, although those we pretty mature at the time ARM bought Keil.  A few new 8051 here and there needed device support but on the whole the support the tools needed were licensing and technical support. 
A paid-for RTOS on Cortex M3 core however I would expect needs a lot more support across the board of micro-controller vendors.

[coppice]

Argh.  How long until SiLabs drops support for everything that isn't theirs?

We got pretty boned when uChip bought Hi-Tech and killed compiler support for everything not-a-PIC.

A counter example is Keil. Even after they were bought by ARM they retained support for C166, 8051, etc.

Keil only supplies compilers for ARM cores and cores which barely impact on the ARM market. Killing support for those other devices couldn't benefit ARM's promotion of its own cores. It could only annoy ARM customers who also use these more primitive cores.

[legacy]

Keil only supplies compilers for ARM cores and cores which barely impact on the ARM market. Killing support for those other devices couldn't benefit ARM's promotion of its own cores. It could only annoy ARM customers who also use these more primitive cores.

I fully agree

[engineer_in_shorts]

The other thing to note is that ARM does not sell micro-controllers.

[Sal Ammoniac]

A counter example is Keil. Even after they were bought by ARM they retained support for C166, 8051, etc.

Keil only supplies compilers for ARM cores and cores which barely impact on the ARM market. Killing support for those other devices couldn't benefit ARM's promotion of its own cores. It could only annoy ARM customers who also use these more primitive cores.

I don't have statistics, but I would think that the 8051 is a competitor for the Cortex-M0, especially as various vendors are touting the M0 and M0+ as 8-bit replacements.

And yes, I know that ARM itself doesn't sell microcontrollers, but they do have a strong interest in protecting the ARM ecosystem.

[richardman]

Well, now the Soft Banks own ARM, ARM *may* make their own microcontrollers or other chips. I guess we will just have to wait and see.