do you use avr/arm/pic/etc?

[cheerio]

are you all pic guys? or are there more avr guys like me?
just wondering because i did not see anything about avr here yet.

[_pike]

actually you will find an avr fan here...his nick is herctrap or <Hercules Trapierakis> He uses a lot avr micros and arduino as far as i know....

http://www.pcbheaven.com/userpages/PID_Thermostat_Controller_with_bult_in_AC_dimmer/
http://www.pcbheaven.com/userpages/Homemade_Soldering_Station_2_AVR/

[cheerio]

cool thx. but i am not a big arduino fanboy... the compiled stuff is huge O_O

[kam]

cool thx. but i am not a big arduino fanboy... the compiled stuff is huge O_O

You program in assembly?

[cheerio]

i program in C, assembly only inline

[kam]

So there is a difference between C on AVR and arduino? The code is bigger?

[cheerio]

The syntax is quite similar. And you can actually code pure C in the Arduino IDE too, but it is not meant to use it this way.
Arduino is based on using librarys for everything. Most of those librarys are quite complex and therefore huge. For many projects you need only a few features of what the lib offers. But it all compiles. Arduino IDE also includes needed libs by itself. That can be a pain in the ass ^^

I use AVR Studio and managed to compile the same functionality i needed to 1/8 of the Arduino size. Arduino is for people that want a quick setup or don't know much about the microcontrollers. For a release product it is not a good choice. If i just need a pwm signal or anything like that in no time i like Arduino

[George]

A lot of people seem to be considering (if not already there) dropping both AVR and PIC and moving to ARM processors, obviously using some version of C.

Also, I read an article recently indicating that  GCC ( the compiler behind AVRStudio), was a dying thing and looking at LLVM was the way to go, one companies move to LLVM from GCC cited fater compile times, smaller code and faster execution times [ I cannot remember exactly but there were changes of 10-40% in some areas).

Here's a wiki on LLVM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LLVM

Also a cheap (DIP) ARM is now available from NXP
http://www.nxp.com/news/press-releases/2012/11/nxp-revolutionizes-simplicity-with-lpc800.html

[kam]

You're right George about the Arm micros... They have a big share in the consumer electronics. Some mornings i find myself thinking of getting some of them to start playing around, but by noon its gone... bold move

[George]

Try Texas Stellaris Launchpad LM4F120, not sure if the Texas promo is still on, but they were $4.95 inc devlvery to your doorstep. If not, you can get them from RS for a similar price

[cheerio]

I bought a nxp lpc1768 dev board. Those chips are pretty cool stuff but i cannot find an ARM chip that can beat availability and price of the 8-bit controllers if they are used for simple applications. There is a huge difference if i pay 2-4€ 8-bit or 5-9€ for 32bit.
But i recommend to experiment with the cortex m- series. For highly integrated circuits they can be awesome and they can cut the BOM down if you don't need extra dedicated chips for interfaces and stuff.

[_pike]

And what about ARM processors?

Instruction set?
Speed?
8-bit,16bit?
price?

[cheerio]

cortex M are ARM processors. The M refers to eMbedded, Cortex R are Realtime applications and A are High performance applications