AVR And PIC whats the diferance - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: dmkmedia
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2017, 07:58:32 pm
content: im just starting to look at pic micro controllers i have a Mini Pro Pic programmer and my Pic Microcontrollers have not been delivered yet so i tried inserting a At mega chip from a Arduino and it read it ok and saved the image erased it and wrote it back againso i want to know1 What is the difference between an AVR chip and a PIC chip2 Can I get a Pic Chip and Write the Arduino Image BIN File On ItSorry if i seem a bit thick but im just starting out on my journey from moving from arduino to pic chips

author: Ammar
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2017, 09:24:59 pm
content: 1. Good question. They are different companies. AVR is made by Atmel, and PIC is made by microchip. Although I think I recall someone saying that Microchip has bought out Atmel, so who knows what the future holds. They use different architectures and have different instruction sets, but they do the same things. People will have their preference either way depending on their design requirements.2. Certainly not. PICs have a different instruction set, they use a different machine "language" to operate. I hope that makes sense.

author: Brutte
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2017, 09:41:48 pm
content: Ad1. Any effort made so far?Ad2. Yes, you can. But it most likely won't work. AFAIK the only compatible thing in this world is that you can use PICkit2 to program AVRs via ISP with avrdude.

author: shteii01
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2017, 09:46:17 pm
content: 1. Different architectures.2. AVR is cheaper to learn.

author: danmcb
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2017, 09:54:28 pm
content: Just different families of chips with different architectures. they will both do a whole lot of stuff, and have their followers and detractors. Just choose one and dig in. Getting the cheapest dev kit together will probably be the decider, but they are both great families of devices.

author: onesixright
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2017, 10:45:20 pm
content: FWIW: Microchip bought Atmel.http://www.microchip.com/docs/default-source/announcements-documents/mchp-completes-atml-acquisition-and-provides-update-on-its-q4fy16.pdf

author: Vtile
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2017, 12:00:28 am
content: A simple comparison would be comparing a MAC(=apple) and PC (I don't know which is which) both do pretty much the same thing, in pretty same way. Still they both need a different programs. They might have different type of connectors and they might be internally totally different. Some people like MACs and some people like PCs.Same goes with PIC and AVR. Pic were "the thing", before Arduino made the AVR popular around hobbyists.

author: jaromir
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 16, 2017, 12:20:00 am
content: Not sure why, but I smell either off-topic or flamewar discussion here.

author: Vtile
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2017, 12:33:27 am
content: Quote from: jaromir on January 16, 2017, 12:20:00 amIt is because you have PIC mentioned in your signature.

author: Cliff Matthews
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 16, 2017, 12:36:11 am
content: Quote from: jaromir on January 16, 2017, 12:20:00 amNah... The deed's done, they're both under the same roof. However, one could compare PSoC (bought my sons some 5LP's at $10)http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/cypress-semiconductor-corp/CY8CKIT-059/428-3390-ND/5184557http://www.cypress.com/?docID=49437

author: eblc1388
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2017, 12:40:01 am
content: You will discover that most people here learn and be able to use both. There is a best choice among using which of these two regarding a particular project.It doesn't hurt to know how to use both. My personal experience is learning the second one would only take about one quarter of the time to that of the first.The question is which architecture to start first?

author: jaromir
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 16, 2017, 12:48:35 am
content: Quote from: Vtile on January 16, 2017, 12:33:27 amI wish I knew that before... I would remove the offending three letters from my signature and all flamewars would be gone.But seriously, this topic has been discussed "a few times" here, simple search revealed thishttps://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/pic-and-avr-thinking-of-a-switch-but-need-more-info/https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/avr-or-pic/https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/microcontroller-newbie-needs-some-advice-re-pics-and-avrs/msg302510/#msg302510https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/which-is-more-capable-8-bit-avr-40-pin-dip-or-32-bit-pic-24-pin-dip/msg738882/#msg738882https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/pic-or-avr-microcontrollers/msg599520/#msg599520Perhaps OP could find relevant info there - or at least see how similar discussions ends up.

author: ray-san
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2017, 04:05:48 pm
content: The atmels has one advantage (at least for me). You can optain an atmel on these arduino boards. I don't like the arduino "IDE", and i don't use it. I use atmel studio or a simple text editor to write my code, but the boards are great (notably the arduino micro board). They come with all the stuff you need (a voltage regulator, a crystal oscillator, and a uart to usb converter).You can whack this board into a breadboard, flash your code and everything works fine, which makes life much easyer.