For an awful
lot of applications you don't need more power than an old 8=
=20
bit processor IMHO. Think of the large number of
small PICs, 8051s, etc=20
thatare are in use.=20
Sure. That's the reason why 8 bit controllers are still
in large
quantity production and new models come to the market.
The point is: 30 years back there was no 32 bit 50 MHz controller
available, that cost only as much as a high end 8 bitter. So you where
limited when you actually needed that compute power.=20
Actually my moan is not with designers who use microcontrollers when they
need computing power. I would regard it as insane not to use a 32 bit ARM
microcontorller or similar if that's what was really needed. No, my moan
is about designers who use a microcontrollor (often a PIC or AVR) when
they don't really need it, when there are simpler, more reliable, and
more repairable solutions.
Eh? A simple
microcprocessor + ROM + RAM + a couple of I/O chips will=20
work first time. It doesn't need to be debugged.
It needs to be debugged. At
least when it is build by me. Belive me. ;-)
Hmm... At least with a microprocessor+RAM+ROM+peripherals you can attempt
to debug it. You can make meaningful emasurements and work out what's
going wrong. With a single-chip microcotntroller there's an awful lot you
can't check (whuch is what started this discussion). WIth some
microcontrollers that I've used, mis-setting the clock configuration bits
can cause 'intereting' results and there's no way to see that the darn
thign isn't running
Seriously, there are places where they are the
right thing to use. And=20
there are places where they are not. However, all to often so-called=20
designmrs want to solcve every problem with a mircocontroller...
Designers talk
the language they are familar with. Today most disigners
are more familar with C then with BC548. ;-)
While undoubtedly true, that worries me -- a lot. I can't rememebr who
said 'Any 3rd-rate engineer can make a complicated device enve more
complicated. It takes a genius to go back to first principles', but alas
I feel there are far too manyy 3rd-rate engineers designing the things I
have to use...
-tony