[SOLVED] Main difference between ATMEL uc and PIC uc.

[sn_burki]

hi all
What is the main difference between ATMEL and PIC, I have been working on ATMEL long time and found it very easy, but it is seemed that 80% people prefer PIC instead of atmel???? although PIC is expensive comparitively to atmel??? what is the reason?????

regards.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Here in Canada PICs and AVRs are about the same price.

 

[penoy_balut]

I prefer micro controllers with free compiler.

 

[rkodaira]

Here in Brazil. we have support from Microchip representatives and distributors, we can participate in the local Masters Seminars, the chips are easily found in stores at reasonable prices, there are a lot of books about PICs written in local language (portuguese). The same does not happen with ATMEL.

 

[andre_luis]

I prefer ATMEL, due it have 51 cores.

But the major atractive aspect at PIC is RISC/Harvard architecture, allowing a simple set of instructions, and also good documentation, making it the best choice to self-learning programmers.

+++

 

[master_picengineer]

I prefer PICs,
They have the lowest price, they are performant, easy to use, and there are a lot of related free material and software.

 

[nandhu015]

Here in India

AVR is cheaper than PICs

I feel learning avr is more easier than pic..

Nandhu

 

[ndru_w]

The main difference between Atmel and PIC is that Atmel is a company which produces few types of microcontrollers and PIC is a type of microcontroller which is produced by Microchip company.
May you concrete your question?

 

[sn_burki]

hi all
Thank you all for your views, but my question was not for the difference b/w altmel or pic for its price or easy availibility but for the technical back ground. Why is pic used vaste in field than Atlmel?? what facilities pic has which are not in atmel? etc.

regards

 

[nguyennam]

PICs are more popular, in my opinion, due to 2 main reasons:
- Strong supports from Microchip, and from internet either. You can easily buy PICs anywhere. (What Atmel do for AVR?).
- PIC seems to be learnt easily with only 35 instructions, least among 8-bit MCUs (AVR = 75, 8051 = 110).

But I prefer AVR because:
- Limited PIC ability due to short instruction set.
- Most of instructions needs only 1 machine cycle (not 4 in PIC, 12 in 8051). That makes AVRs specially suitable for some applications that are hard to design with PICs or 8051.
- AVRs are optimumly designed to program with C. Some good C compilers are free on internet.
- AVRs are not expensive.

Anyone else?

 

[cai2]

pic microcontrollers have built-in pwm, while atmel don't have...pic have many features that atmel don't have, but atmel is good for beginners it's easy to use and easy to implement...

 

[Ali.Samari]

Hi
Atmel Avrs have PWM such as Pic.
I worked by PIC and AVR and I thought that PIC micros
are more stable than AVRs.for example you couldn't work by AVRs near small motors.but in these days ATMEGA AVRs are stable and convenient to use.
PICs and AVRs have similar properties but PICs are more expensive than AVRs in similar range.
Good luck

 

[potyo]

- Limited PIC ability due to short instruction set.

18F serie has 75 instructions.

- Most of instructions needs only 1 machine cycle (not 4 in PIC, 12 in 8051). That makes AVRs specially suitable for some applications that are hard to design with PICs or 8051.

PIC can run at higher speed.

- AVRs are optimumly designed to program with C. Some good C compilers are free on internet.

C18 compiler is free from Microchip, and the 18F serie is optimized to program with C.
Programming of the PIC is more elegant, there is no need for working oscillator or external clock for serial programming.

We can't say, PIC or AVR is better. Use that, which is more available :!:

 

[ktec1]

hi all
What is the main difference between ATMEL and PIC, I have been working on ATMEL long time and found it very easy, but it is seemed that 80% people prefer PIC instead of atmel???? although PIC is expensive comparitively to atmel??? what is the reason?????

regards.

if you have ability to use compilers such bascom or codevision it would be
really unfair to ignore really powerfull abilities of avr's specially atmega series
which nearly most of them have more than 120 instructions executed in one machine cycle addition to it the abilities that bascom or codevision gives avr's
are realy exciting i really suggest you work with avr's.

 

[hamed_sotoudi]

pic microcontrollers have built-in pwm, while atmel don't have...pic have many features that atmel don't have, but atmel is good for beginners it's easy to use and easy to implement...

I am sorry but AVRs has built-in PWM. refer to their datasheet. they have 2 PWM.

 

[x_zoli]

In my opinion AVRs aren't suitable for industrial applications due to their sensitivity to any kind of interference. I had all sort of problems with AVRs that went dead without any plausible reason. Later I found out that they can overwrite their fuse bits under some conditions, for example they can change the oscillator type. They can also encounter situations where a hardware reset cannot bring them out of a "frozen" state. I have even seen once an industrial system built on two AVRs, one supervising the other for cutting each other's power to overcome the freezing situation described above. Now, where is the advantage of using AVRs?
At home on your desk it might work well, but in a real life situations they can mess it up really bad. It's not a problem if an AVR doesn't flash a LED like it should, but if it burns some equipment that worths a few thousand dollars you think more than twice before using AVRs once again.

 

[mk6262]

I use both AVR and PIC, but these devices seem to be similar together and have many differences.
In general, AVR has more SRAM than PIC, specially 8bit devices, but, PICmicro has the powerful 16bit devices, thus what is important, regarding the issue of which to choose, is we should understand the charateristics of both devices.

 

[johnny_hush]

Well, I personally use PIC, but you should know that with both PIC and ATMEL you can do a lot of things.
Also be aware that when you're using PIC it divides frequency with 4! For example if you put 4Mhz crystal then ATMEL will work on 4Mhz and PIC on 1Mhz.
I can assure you that if you choose PIC you won't regret.

Kind regards

 

[rezaxyz]

Hi,

I've encountered many situations which seem AVR susceptible to EMI, but I conclude it may be my fault in system design. So my question to more experienced AVR programmer is does they have similar problem or really PICs ARE MORE IMMUNE IN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS?

Thank You

 

[psmll]

I don't know the ATMEL, but I can say that PIC is simple to use and powerful at the same time, it's cheap, lots of support, and can be found everywhere

I also have putted some PICs working in very bad situactions, most of them, near big motors and lots of electro magnetic interference, and PIC continue always working ;-)