Microchip to acquire Atmel For $3.56 billion
>>933262
PICduino?
>>933262
Both are Apple rip offs.
>>933262
god damn it
what the fuck atmel?
>>933262
That's it. I'm taking up arms and sparking the racewar.
>>933262
Link?
>>933341
People who don't know what they're talking about say things like "The chip I need you to program is Atmel", which doesn't tell me much because Atmel is a manufacturer of AVR, ARM, and 8051 microcontrollers. When someone says "It's Microchip" I know they mean a PIC microcontroller, or at least I did before today.
>>933262
>mfw more experienced with PIC
Get wreaked arduinofags
>>933341
it's always bad when the "mom and pop" semiconductor companies sell out to the man.
And in any industry people always grumble when a company buys out the competition
>>933341
Because now there is basically only 1 company making micro controllers.. they have no competition, monopoly, motivation for quality controll, etc.
inb4 a list of two dozen companies that are almost never used
inb4 14 instances where a sony microcontroller was used in a phillips answering machine in 1987
>>933371
This is my biggest concern right here. Never been a part of the PIC vs AVR war myself.
>>933371
what about TI and the countless proprietary mysterious obscure micros
>>933383
TI makes some good shit,
let me start off by saying I dont work in the industry and dont call myself a professional.. but Ive never heard or seen their micro controllers being used in anything unless they have a different name.
(dont you dare fucking say calculators, you know what I meant.)
>>933383
Never used TI for micros personally. Always used them for power systems & switching regulators (Linear is also fucking great) or RF applications.
For something so prevalent in our society's technology, you'd think there would be more major MCU manufacturers.
>>933427
Not who you're replying to, but
>inb4 a list of two dozen companies that are almost never used
>>933430
>almost never used
2014 Revenues:
Atmel- $1.41 billion
Microchip- $1.93 billion
STMicroelectronics- $7.40 billion
TI- $13.045 billion
NXP- $5.647 billion
Maybe if you never graduated from babby's first Arduino course you'd consider these companies "never used"
>>933435
Now tell me what percentage of those revenues comes from microcontroller sales.
Also, not that it matters, but I don't use Arduino, matey.
Wtf atmel?
Where are my AVR vs PIC war going to go now?
Anyway, I prefer AVR8 and free as in freedom GCC to shitty PIC and their backwards compilers and architectures.
>>933394
>(dont you dare fucking say calculators, you know what I meant.)
Speak & Spells?
>>933437
For STMicro, around 30%.
>>933262
>This kills the AVR
>>933430
>almost never used
I'll bet you have most of those in your home... STMicro is in everything! TI CPUs are in a lot of digital cameras. Cypress offers some funky analog and I/O on their microcontrollers, which are often used as motor controllers.
>>933435
>midget enslaves smaller midget
>OH MY GOD THERE ARE NO MCU MANUFACTURERS LEFT
Well, guess it was already time to move up to ARM-based STM32.
450mm wafer mass production when?
>>933371
atmel was a shit company
they were no competition for micochip
they havent made a profit in years
this sale has nearly happened a few times
we might even get a decent uC out of it
>>933278
>PICduino?
yea sure
>Arduino: official=$25, chinese = $5, USB programmable
>PICduino: official = $50, no chinese version, and needs separate proprietary programmer hardware (another $50)
Arduino can change to using whatever-else.
Microchip and Atmel are the best for hobby / uni level stuff. But this merger ain't that bad, microchip are still the best for cheap diy chips, not in danger. Microchip even give free chips to students.
TI, Cypress, ST, NXP, Freescale etc all require expensive programmers and their chips are rarely hand solderable. No good for poor students and hobby folk.
I hope this doesn't mean that AVR will be discontinued.
For all of the doomsday predictors, I kind of doubt Microchip will axe the major Atmel product lines. These mergers in the IC industry are happening because they want to save money by combining forces, not because they want to piss off their customer base. That being said, anything's possible.
If they do decide to get rid of some lines, I hope they at least continue developing the Atmel SAM chips. I've been learning how to use them the past few months, and I'm really starting to like them. The peripherals included with them are very powerful and flexible in my opinion, not to mention the L21 series which can run in active mode at 35 uA/MHz.
>>933722
>what is picaxe
>>933661
For automotive systems they were pretty good. Some car companies use nothing but atmel chips.
>>933722
Also
>a bunch of paid, awful IDEs, most of them are worse than AIDS
>no freeware GCC compiler
>>933732
>Cypress
Not really. Cypress has a programmer that costs £6.00. The chips are also bretty cheap. It is true that most aren't hand-solderable, but if you have a frying pan or an electric oven and good eyes you can easily reflow-solder them.
>>933525
lol
>>933430
>being this fucking stupid
