pic: Microchip PIC18F8520
 

Wow, I never really thought it was that small..... so much power in so little space. I like it. :)

small?! that thing is HUGE!

if it was a ball grid array (BGA) device it would be 1/4 the size.

Check this out http://d116.com/ace/

the d116 is small, but its still not a BGA device.

BTW, that d116 is so small, you could put in in a cable and nobody would know its in there.

this site has 80 pin Ball Grid Array devices:

http://www.microdynamics.com/MicroBuzzAug03.pdf

I've seen people that can hand solder a gull-wing device, no matter how fine the pitch. Never seen one that can hand solder a BGA, though :p

heres the photo of the micro BGA on CD photo page:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...gle&picid=5680

and for the lazy:

okay... but what exactly does it DO ? i'm not familiar w/ this stuff so that may be a stupid question

the PIC chip in the first photo is the microprocessor / microcontroller that runs all the code that we use in the robot controller.

You dont have to worry about its size or anything, the robot controller comes already assembled and sealed, so you dont have to solder it or anything

we were just marveling at how small these things are getting, while running faster and having more functions than the old ones did.

This may seem like a stupid question.....Are they gonna give us a new interface or are we gonna have to play around with last years to put these chips in?

-Pat

we will be getting brand new Robot Controllers this year, for the competition and educational robots.

they come assembled and sealed, so we dont have to worry about the chips inside.

Okay thanks for the clearification.

-Pat