PIC or AVR??!!

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Navid T

Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 132
Helped: 1
Location: Iran

28 Apr 2008 20:47 PIC or AVR??!!

Hello
I work with AVR family with assembly language, i heard PIC microcontrollers are better in some works. which one do you preffer? PIC or AVR? Why?
is it good idea to learn PIC when i know avr? Why? Which language is better to learn pic?
i want to understand why somebody say PIC is more useful and somebody say avr ?

dchisholm_engr

Joined: 28 Apr 2008
Posts: 1

28 Apr 2008 23:21 PIC or AVR??!!

You will probably not find many people who have recent experience with both PIC and AVR. Most engineers work with one family of microcontroller for several projects before they really "know" it. Then they want to make use of what they have learned, and the support tools they have acquired, for as long as possible before they switch to another family and must start over again.

I have worked with PIC microcontrollers for 5 years now. About 10 years before that I briefly worked with Motorola microcontrollers, but in between I didn't do anything with microcontrollers. My employer chose PIC because they offered a microcontroller with all the built-in peripherals that the project needed at a very attractive price. And, the software development tools (MPLAB) were free. And, the local Microchip distributor gave us very good help and support - they even loaned a development programmer for several months.

Now that I have worked with PIC's I am sure I could easily learn another family, but I have no need to. Most of our products are rather straightforward designs for industrial and commercial markets. Annual productions range from about 1000 to 25,000 units, and they are moderately sensitive to price.

Microchip PIC devices (mostly PIC16Fxxx family, programmed in Assembly) satisfy these requirements well. We could probably design the same products with AVR, or Renessas, or NXP, or many other microcontrollers. We already know and understand PIC processors, and have not seen other microcontrollers that were significantly less expensive to manufacture with, and have always found a PIC microcontroller that was well-suited to our requirements.

That last point may be the most important: PIC microcontrollers seem to have a selection of on-chip peripherals (things like EEPROM, A/D, USART, PWM, etc, etc) that are well-matched to the projects we do. AVR, or another manufacturer, may have some peripherals that are better suited to the applications or industries you are designing for.

eehero

Joined: 23 Nov 2005
Posts: 232
Helped: 9
Location: Libya

29 Apr 2008 22:18 PIC or AVR??!!

without comments, AVR the best.

blueroomelectronics

Joined: 17 Sep 2006
Posts: 1681
Helped: 99
Location: Toronto, Canada

29 Apr 2008 23:05 Re: PIC or AVR??!!

eehero wrote:

without comments, AVR the best.

That's one opinion.

Personally I prefer the PICs.

nandhu015

Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Posts: 640
Helped: 46
Location: Tamilnadu, India

30 Apr 2008 13:05 Re: PIC or AVR??!!

It depends on particular application and quantity.

each and every micro has its own pros and cons.

If you decide to use C then it is a little bit easy to switch to any other micros. If you use asm then you have to start from the scratch.

asking generally which one is better? is not easily answerable. You have to decide by yourself

Regards
Nandhu

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AdvaRes

Joined: 14 Feb 2008
Posts: 1038
Helped: 46
Location: At home

30 Apr 2008 13:41 PIC or AVR??!!

I prefert PIC since I worked a lot with.

Gorgon

Joined: 10 Nov 2005
Posts: 57
Helped: 7
Location: Norway

30 Apr 2008 20:01 PIC or AVR??!!

If you use assembler, I would stay with AVR. PIC assembler is a pain in the behind if you are used with normal CISC processors. If you use C, I would think the difference is not that big. For the smaller controllers, AVR's has more resources, like memory.

In the end it's your own preferences that counts.

TOK Wink

Sayem Ahmed

Joined: 07 Apr 2008
Posts: 47
Helped: 3
Location: Dhaka,Bangladesh

30 Apr 2008 21:11 Re: PIC or AVR??!!

I prefer PIC mostly.

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Here some Criteria that you can take into account when choosing a microcontroller
(family) are:
1. availability

=> PIC & AVR both avaiable(What is in your region)

2. price

=>PIC is the best.(Judge in your region.)

2. ease of use (as a start consider only controllers with flash memory
that can be (re)programmed in-circuit)

=>PIC is the best.

3. quality and price of development tools
support from friends, neighbors, clubs, newsgroups, mailing lists
availability of application notes, reference designs, hobbyist web
pages

=>PIC is the best.(Judge in your region.)

4. features of the chip (IO pins, UART, A/D, D/A, counters, speed, code
size, data size, etc.)

=>PIC is the best.

5. ease of migrating to smaller (cheaper) or larger (more capable)
chips

=>PIC is the best.

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Navid T

Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 132
Helped: 1
Location: Iran

01 May 2008 9:44 Re: PIC or AVR??!!

Sayem Ahmed wrote:

Thanks Ahmed but in all factors you wrote here AVR is better in my region (-;
i want to learn pic beacause i heared pic is more powerfull in industrial and its less sensitive to noise again avr.

blueroomelectronics

Joined: 17 Sep 2006
Posts: 1681
Helped: 99
Location: Toronto, Canada

01 May 2008 18:42 Re: PIC or AVR??!!

Navid T wrote:

Thanks Ahmed but in all factors you wrote here AVR is better in my region (-;
i want to learn pic beacause i heared pic is more powerfull in industrial and its less sensitive to noise again avr.

I'm a tried and true PIC guy, but I've never heard the AVR was any more sensitive to noise than the PIC. A good power supply design and proper layout would be crucial for any industrial application.
I don't use AVR because I have no need to, they can both pretty much do anything the other brand does. Some devices are specialized and offer integrated peripherals like USB or Ethernet else it's like comparing apples to oranges.

Navid T

Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 132
Helped: 1
Location: Iran

01 May 2008 21:06 Re: PIC or AVR??!!

blueroomelectronics wrote:

Navid T wrote:

Thanks Ahmed but in all factors you wrote here AVR is better in my region (-;
i want to learn pic beacause i heared pic is more powerfull in industrial and its less sensitive to noise again avr.

Sorry if my english is not so good, i mean PIC work better in noisy places. ( I heared it )