Electronic Name Badges.

[Kevin Cozens]

phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
>> I won't get in to why I prefer AVR's over
>> PIC's as the reasons won't mean much to a lot of people on this list.
>>
> OK, I'll do that ;). Actually, I think it's relevant - it's a computer
> architecture issue.

If you insist... :-)

In addition to most of what Peter mentioned, I also like that the AVR's have a 
RISC core (most/all instructions are single clock cycle), can operate without 
the need for an external crystal/oscillator/resonator, can be programmed using 
dead simple hardware, can be programmed in-circuit, have an instruction set 
optimized for use with C, C programs can be written for them in Linux (as well 
as DOS/Windows) using a version of the gcc toolchain for AVR, and have decent 
amounts of built-in memory (EEPROM and Flash) compared to some other 
microcontrollers I've used even in the 8-pin version. An ATtiny45 (8-pin 
package) has 4K Bytes of Flash, and 256 bytes each of EEPROM and SRAM.

> Interestingly, the 68HC11 is still an excellent machine to learn on
[snip]
> (Disclosure: we developed a 68HC11 board that is
> used at Ryerson and community colleges.)

If someone is learning to work with computer chips they are better off 
starting with a microprocessor rather than a microcontroller. That 68HC11 
board used at Ryerson is rather nice. I built one a few years ago after 
learning about it from a poster on one of the office doors during the time I 
was working for a company located on the Ryerson campus.

-- 
Cheers!

Kevin.

http://www.ve3syb.ca/           |"What are we going to do today, Borg?"
Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172      |"Same thing we always do, Pinkutus:
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