Author Topic: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"  (Read 4271 times)

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Offline kaz911Topic starter

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MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« on: July 27, 2020, 07:57:28 pm »
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Our MPLAB® XC C Compiler PRO license provides valuable optimizations that reduce the size of your code and increase the efficiency of your software. We also offer our 12-month High Priority Access (HPA) product to maintain your PRO license to allow updating your compiler to the latest version, provide you with priority access to technical support and give you free shipping of development tools that you order on Microchip’s Purchasing and Client Services e-commerce website.

Over the past couple of years, the MPLAB XC compilers have been updated to offer you more value through the addition of optimization and ease-of-use features. We have added support for AVR® and SAM microcontrollers and microprocessors, along with new features centered on interrupts and memory allocation. Some code optimizations that have been added recently include:

Link-time optimizations
Procedural abstraction
Best-fit allocator for superior data memory utilization
Source language support for tightly coupled memory
To continue to provide the best compiler products possible for all of Microchip’s licenses, we will be making a change to the way our compiler licenses work. This change will take place on September 1, 2020, in the following ways:

All MPLAB XC PRO licenses activated after this date will expire after one year unless the HPA is renewed
An existing MPLAB XC PRO license will change to this new model as the HPA is renewed and applied to it
Note that any existing licenses will continue to function as they always have, and there will be no extra fees for letting the HPA lapse. HPA itself will not change. It will still provide you with updates to new compiler versions, priority access to technical support and free shipping on your development tool orders.

We are committed to continuously improving our world-class line of MPLAB XC compilers to provide you with valuable and easy-to-use software development solutions. Please email us at SW.Licensing@microchip.com if you have any questions.

©Copyright 2020 Microchip Technology Inc. All rights reserved.
 2355 West Chandler Blvd. Chandler, Arizona, USA 85224-6199

 

Offline Mangozac

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2020, 08:54:25 pm »
I just got this email too. Very shortsighted of Microchip, but I suspect was driven by people generally not renewing their HPA until they needed new part support.

I found it amusing that they are spruiking the integration of AVR and SAM devices: this is a PIC compiler so I would pay more to not have the enormous bloat the Atmel products are causing in all of the Microchip products!

There will most likely be a flurry of license purchases over the next month 😂
 

Offline kaz911Topic starter

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2020, 09:02:12 pm »
I just got this email too. Very shortsighted of Microchip, but I suspect was driven by people generally not renewing their HPA until they needed new part support.

I found it amusing that they are spruiking the integration of AVR and SAM devices: this is a PIC compiler so I would pay more to not have the enormous bloat the Atmel products are causing in all of the Microchip products!

There will most likely be a flurry of license purchases over the next month 😂

Maybe they are low on cash and it is a cash grab... :)

Anyone wants my XC8 Pro license for a reasonable fee? I have not used it in years so it is as good as new.
 

Offline ebclr

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2020, 11:46:36 pm »
Have many other options

https://www.mikroe.com/mikroc-pic
 

Online JPortici

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2020, 06:12:54 am »
yeah, mikroc has it own sets of issues starting from the IDE and what the IDE let you do (things could have improved in the past few years but i'm not going to hold my breath)
IMHO XC8 still provides the best optimization and least bugs.
I think i NEVER used the PRO version so i'm not really concerned about this change but, in principle, i am worried too.
unfortunately microchip is driven by cow milkers, which is why we have to pay for higher optmiziations :( and the guys in the engineering team fought really, really hard to convince the upper levels to give up -O2 for free, which happened about one year ago.

Another thing that scares me is that it is an indicator that they are increasing the amount of control done over the internet. This became apparent some months ago after the release of MPLABX 5.35.. a bug in their servers rendered the thing useless for a complete work day because apparently it tries to fetch the list of supported parts and tools at launch..
 

Offline AndyC_772

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2020, 06:15:42 am »
Meanwhile, on another planet, ARM exists and gcc is free.

If anyone is able to point me towards another microcontroller which runs at 5V and 150 deg C, I'd drop PIC like a hot rock right now.

Anyone? Please?

Online JPortici

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2020, 11:20:32 am »
There should be something from infineon  ::)
i'll gladly stay with PIC

maybe some SPC from either NXP or ST, but i don't remember if the 5V parts are rated to 150°C or just 125°C
 

Offline jc101

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2020, 04:58:07 pm »
The Dongle based licences are still listed, and never expire, plus will work for new compilers without needing HPA.  Not the cheapest things, but once bought just keep on running.
 

Offline kaz911Topic starter

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2020, 05:48:47 pm »
The Dongle based licences are still listed, and never expire, plus will work for new compilers without needing HPA.  Not the cheapest things, but once bought just keep on running.

yes and you can upgrade for the price difference.... :) (asked yesterday)
 
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Offline voltsandjolts

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2020, 10:51:59 am »
If anyone is able to point me towards another microcontroller which runs at 5V and 150 deg C, I'd drop PIC like a hot rock right now.

STM8, AVR if you require the 150C manufacturer rating.
Of course there are a plethora of microcontrollers not manufacturer rated to 150C but will work just fine at that temperature (and more).
5V is restrictive though, 3V3 would open more doors for you.

I concede that Microchip has the broadest range of high-temperature capable microcontrollers and they are quite reliable.
 

Offline voltsandjolts

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2020, 11:00:46 am »
For the GNU based compilers there is this option:

https://github.com/cv007/XC3216/blob/master/xc32xc16-info-rev6.txt
 

Offline Mangozac

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2020, 11:44:25 pm »
For the GNU based compilers there is this option:

https://github.com/cv007/XC3216/blob/master/xc32xc16-info-rev6.txt
So hang on; all you have to do is place the specified one-liner file in the specified directory and it allows full optimisation?
 

Online JPortici

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2020, 05:43:54 am »
Yep :)
doesn't work for XC8 though, which does AGGRESSIVE code size optimizations in pro mode (not sure about execution speed because in -O2 the code is already optimized a lot)
 

Offline unitedatoms

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #13 on: August 01, 2020, 12:47:53 pm »
Meanwhile, on another planet, ARM exists and gcc is free.

If anyone is able to point me towards another microcontroller which runs at 5V and 150 deg C, I'd drop PIC like a hot rock right now.

Anyone? Please?


https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/196/Infineon-TLE9843QX-DS-v01_00-EN-1227839.pdf

This is Cortex M0 +150C, 5V with also 28V involved there somehow.
Interested in all design related projects no matter how simple, or complicated, slow going or fast, failures or successes
 
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Offline AndyC_772

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #14 on: August 01, 2020, 05:58:05 pm »
Oooohh   :D

Offline cdev

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #15 on: August 26, 2020, 10:52:21 pm »
I knew there was something that put me off two years ago when I first investigated PIC.

Can I use gcc or some other free compiler and some other, free IDE with (old) PIC chips ?
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 

Offline greenpossum

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #16 on: August 26, 2020, 11:27:19 pm »
SDCC supports some PICs.
 
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Offline rhodges

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #17 on: August 26, 2020, 11:37:10 pm »
I knew there was something that put me off two years ago when I first investigated PIC.
Two years ago, I discovered STM8 and decided that PIC was in my rear view mirror.

I guess I started working with PIC in the mid 1990's. It was way different from the 6809 that I was working on at the time. But it was interesting. The 6805 and 6811 had lost my interest. I forgot PIC for a decade while I did other embedded programming, then got back into their F (flash) chips. They were really nice for shortening the cycle. But PIC was still weird for programming. Maybe the easy way to explain it is to forget that you have few "real" registers, and that you have many memory based registers. Like the 6502 with its zero-page pointer space. So you have a crippled accumulator, but can access a large "sort of memory" space.

Going back to topic, I have watched Microchip and their compiler program. And I think their compiler program is despicable. Their compiler should give the best possible code. Yes, it will be often be crap, and sometimes downright shitty. But they should give it to everyone who uses their chips. They are assholes for charging for software to sell their chips.

Quote
Can I use gcc or some other free compiler and some other, free IDE with (old) PIC chips ?
As another posted, SDCC is an option. I really like SDCC.
« Last Edit: August 26, 2020, 11:39:21 pm by rhodges »
Currently developing STM8 and STM32. Past includes 6809, Z80, 8086, PIC, MIPS, PNX1302, and some 8748 and 6805. Check out my public code on github. https://github.com/unfrozen
 
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Online amyk

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #18 on: August 27, 2020, 03:10:40 am »
Yep :)
doesn't work for XC8 though, which does AGGRESSIVE code size optimizations in pro mode (not sure about execution speed because in -O2 the code is already optimized a lot)
Isn't it based on GCC? If so, they must release the source according to GPL license, and thus their silly restrictions can be easily patched out.
 

Offline andersm

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #19 on: August 27, 2020, 06:53:13 am »
Yep :)
doesn't work for XC8 though, which does AGGRESSIVE code size optimizations in pro mode (not sure about execution speed because in -O2 the code is already optimized a lot)
Isn't it based on GCC?
No.

Online JPortici

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Re: MPLAB XC Compilers - now only on "rental"
« Reply #20 on: August 27, 2020, 08:53:32 am »
XC8 has never been GCC.
Well.. now that XC8 includes gcc-avr and they DO release the AVR part https://www.microchip.com/development-tools/pic-and-dspic-downloads-archive (search for source archives)
But the PIC part has never been GCC.

Also, i never ever EVER want to heal with SDCC again. I hate using bastardized C like in the sillab 8bitters.

Again, before complaining do TRY comparing -O2 vs -O3 and see if the aggressive code size reduction made possible by procedural abstraction is worth the headaches in debugging.
Not for me, more flash memory is cheaper

Meanwhile, on another planet, ARM exists and gcc is free.

If anyone is able to point me towards another microcontroller which runs at 5V and 150 deg C, I'd drop PIC like a hot rock right now.

Anyone? Please?


https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/196/Infineon-TLE9843QX-DS-v01_00-EN-1227839.pdf

This is Cortex M0 +150C, 5V with also 28V involved there somehow.

Because it's a weird hybrid with an integrated LIN Transceiver. Cool, i guess, for a really really REALLY space and money constrained application but once they decide they don't want to support it anymore you are basically screwed.
I haven't seen parts you can easily migrate to
There used to be a few around in the past, along with MCUs with integrated Sub GHz RX/TX. All are slowly fading out of existence..

 


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