[time-nuts] Bye-Bye Crystals

Hal Murray hmurray at megapathdsl.net
Mon Mar 13 20:11:40 EDT 2017


jimlux at earthlink.net said:
> what about cheap crystals for microcontrollers.. I think the Arduino,  for
> instance, uses a crystal (and the oscillator electronics are inside  the
> Atmel part) 

I assume you can save a few pennies if you use a raw crystal rather than an 
oscillator.  That probably matters in high volume low cost applications.

Atmel has the technology for making oscillators.  That's an analog-ish corner 
on what is mostly a digital chip.  A lot of their chips are low standby power 
which generally means an older digital process with thicker oxides that don't 
leak as much.  That probably makes analog corners easier, but I'm far from a 
wizard at that area.

-- 
These are my opinions.  I hate spam.





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