Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday
Finally, it would be great if they picked a processor with a free toolchain (GCC would make the most sense). AVR or ARM would be a good choice for this. It would open the doors to Mac/Linux development. Unfortunately I think they have a strong relationship with Microchip so we'll probably continue to see more PICs in there...
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I have to say that staying with pics is probably the best thing to do mostly because teams' older members as well as software mentors are all experienced in pic architecture, how the peripherals operate, etc. A huge amount of relearning throughout the FIRST community would have to be done if the RC started using a processor from a different silicon manufacturer.
Plus, though other chips are flashier in their features the PIC microcontroller has a very high level of robustness such as high drive current on output pins and the ability to even handle a few ESD hits. I admit that having an ATMEGA8 or MEGA16 or heck even a mot ColdFire would be sweet, but, in the application environment I'd rather take the pic overall. Plus, you get the compiler for free from first...
-q