Re:Arduino TRE
by CamperBob2 on Saturday April 04, 2015 @09:44PM
(#9322826)
Sounds like you need to educate yourself a bit. There's more to microcontrollers than Arduino.
I was using AVRs long before the Arduino platform popularized them (does that make me an MCU hipster?) Even ten years ago there were far better chips. Somehow AVR not only outcompeted those chips, but came to utterly dominate its market niche. Why do you suppose that is?
Your position is reminiscent of those who expressed incredulity at the success of iOS when it didn't do anything that wasn't already being done at the time it was introduced. There's something you Just Don't Get. If I were you, I'd wonder what that might be.
> Why do you suppose that is?
Marketing and the Arduino IDE.
Re:Arduino TRE
by CamperBob2 on Saturday April 04, 2015 @09:52PM
(#9322848)
(I edited my comment to point out that the AVR chips predate the Arduino platform by several years, and that there were technically superior parts on the market even then.)
> No chip that needs an OS can truly replace an AVR
They don't need an OS.
> No chip that takes more than two seconds to boot up can truly replace an AVR
No boot up time. They start running your code right away.
> No chip with a 2,000-page data sheet can truly replace an AVR.
Maybe more like a few hundred. Just like an AVR datasheet.
> No chip that requires binary blobs to do anything interesting can truly replace an AVR.
They don't. They don't even have GPUs.
> No chip that's available only in a BGA or other leadless package can truly replace an AVR.
There available in hand-solderable TQFP packages. There are even a couple of DIP ones (8-pin and 28-pin).
> No chip that requires a 1-gigabyte toolchain installation
I'm pretty sure GCC isn't anywhere near a gigabyte, but it's also the same toolchain used with AVRs.
> (or, Woz forbid, a "cloud"-based toolchain) can truly replace an AVR.
While they exist, they're not in the slightest bit necessary.
> no chip that wasn't explicitly designed to be easy to use by nonexperts in a hardware project can truly replace an AVR.
AVRs were also not designed for non-experts. Try reading a datasheet sometime and try to tell me that's written for non-experts.
> Even lack of 5-volt compatibility has proven a handicap
Lack of 5-volt "compatibility" is an interesting spin on what is essentially a legacy. One could just as easily argue "lack of 3.3V compatibility".
Sounds like you need to educate yourself a bit. There's more to microcontrollers than Arduino.