[time-nuts] Good (cheap) PIC chip choice for project?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Actually GCC does support *some* of the PICs. I'd prefer to go with a >= PIC24 and run the "free" version of the Microchip compiler rather than GCC in this case. The optimization isn't quite as neat in the free Microchip compiler, but the price is right and the thing does work.

Bob

On May 26, 2013, at 3:19 PM, Chris Albertson <albertson.chris at gmail.com> wrote:

> Probably, one of the best advantages of AVR over PIC is that with avr you
> can use the GCC compiler.  Gcc of course is the compiler used "everywhere"
> and supports real ANSI C and has a good optimizer and it's free.   So if
> you use AVR you can port most C code you find that was written for UNIX
> directly to the AVR
> 
> As was said early in this thread, if you want to write in C, AVR is
> designed from the ground up for C.  The PIC is older and has a very simple
> assembly language that is easy to learn.   But the PIC C compilers are
> either expensive or crippled.
> 
> The good thing about using gcc is that it also runs on the PC or Mac OS X
> so you can write test cases and run the code on your desktop.  I lie to
> unit test the software in the larger computer using data from files to
> fully exercise the code before downloading it to the chip.  Using the same
> compiler for the PC/Mac and the chip makes this easier.
> 
> 
> On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 10:34 AM, Orin Eman <orin.eman at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 4:50 AM, Bob Camp <lists at rtty.us> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi
>>> 
>>> One of the original starting points was a free tool chain. Paying major
>>> money for a compiler is moving a bit far from that. You would have to do
>> a
>>> *lot* of home projects to justify that cost.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Indeed.  I wouldn't pay commercial prices for a PIC C compiler for home
>> projects.  The 'Lite' version of SourceBoost that I actually bought is a
>> whopping $5 and in spite of its RAM/ROM limitations, it's been good enough
>> for me.  If I ever sell a product that uses it, I'd need the commercial
>> version at $150 - fair enough IMO.
>> 
>> Orin.
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
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