What does potential Microchip buy out of Atmel mean for future of AVR?

[Bob Paddock-3]

My boss just came in my cube in a panic asked "What have
you heard about Microchip and On Semi. buying Atmel?
Is this going to be a problem for us?"

He is worried that Microchip will kill the AVR, that
we use by the tens of thousands per year.

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210605267

Microchip has already said:

"Microchip said it intends to dispose of Atmel's ASIC business after
completing the acquisition."

What else will they dispose of?

"Microchip (Chandler, Ariz.) says ON Semiconductor (Phoenix) would acquire the
assets related to Atmel's nonvolatile memory and RF and automotive businesses
immediately prior to the closing of a merger. "

Do the Dataflash (vs EEPROM division) parts go to Microchip or On Semi?


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[David VanHorn-2]

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 3:35 PM, Bob Paddock <graceindustries@...> wrote:
> My boss just came in my cube in a panic asked "What have
> you heard about Microchip and On Semi. buying Atmel?
> Is this going to be a problem for us?"

HOLY SHIT BATMAN!

On the other hand, maybe they'll dump the PIC!  (evil grin)

Seriously, it's possible that they will keep the AVR, and give us
tools that work, and real support!

Possible....


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[Ruud Vlaming]

On Thursday 02 October 2008 21:35, Bob Paddock wrote:
> My boss just came in my cube in a panic asked "What have
> you heard about Microchip and On Semi. buying Atmel?
> Is this going to be a problem for us?"
>
> He is worried that Microchip will kill the AVR, that
> we use by the tens of thousands per year.
Although it is unlikely that the will stop production
of a chip that is sure business, they can easily stop
innovation and development in that direction.
AVR is still very much "alive and kicking", and it
should stay that way.

> http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210605267
It is realy bad news. I sincerely hope the management
of Atmel is able to withstand the pressure and keep off
this deal.

Ruud.



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[Weddington, Eric-2]

Hi Bob,

Remember, the news reports says that this an *offer* to buy the company. The news reports also say that discussions between the CEO took place in early September and that Atmel's Board of Directors *declined* the offer at that time.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: avr-chat-bounces+eweddington=cso.atmel.com@...
> [mailto:avr-chat-bounces+eweddington=cso.atmel.com@...]
>  On Behalf Of Bob Paddock
> Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 1:36 PM
> To: avr-chat@...
> Subject: [avr-chat] What does potential Microchip buy out of
> Atmel mean forfuture of AVR?
>
> My boss just came in my cube in a panic asked "What have
> you heard about Microchip and On Semi. buying Atmel?
> Is this going to be a problem for us?"
>
> He is worried that Microchip will kill the AVR, that
> we use by the tens of thousands per year.
>
> http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID
> =210605267
>
> Microchip has already said:
>
> "Microchip said it intends to dispose of Atmel's ASIC business after
> completing the acquisition."
>
> What else will they dispose of?
>
> "Microchip (Chandler, Ariz.) says ON Semiconductor (Phoenix)
> would acquire the
> assets related to Atmel's nonvolatile memory and RF and
> automotive businesses
> immediately prior to the closing of a merger. "
>
> Do the Dataflash (vs EEPROM division) parts go to Microchip
> or On Semi?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AVR-chat mailing list
> AVR-chat@...
> http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/avr-chat
>

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[Xiaofan Chen]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 3:49 AM, David VanHorn <microbrix@...> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 3:35 PM, Bob Paddock <graceindustries@...> wrote:
>> My boss just came in my cube in a panic asked "What have
>> you heard about Microchip and On Semi. buying Atmel?
>> Is this going to be a problem for us?"
>
> On the other hand, maybe they'll dump the PIC!  (evil grin)
>
> Seriously, it's possible that they will keep the AVR, and give us
> tools that work, and real support!

If the offer will be successful (it has been rejected), I guess
it is hard for Microchip to keep all 8-bit MCU lines
(Atmel's 8051 and AVR, Microchop's PIC12/16/18).
I hope they keep all the lines though. At work, we
are using Atmel's 8051. And I was using PIC12/16
in the previous job. And AVR apparently beats most
of the PIC18 handsomely in terms of price and
performance. That is why Microchip started to
offer PIC18J and PIC18K.

Atmel's ARM line is quite good, maybe AVR32 would
be killed. And maybe PIC32 line would be killed as well.

Xiaofan


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[Bob Paddock]

On Thursday 02 October 2008 05:22:18 pm Weddington, Eric wrote:

> Remember, the news reports says that this an *offer* to buy the company.
> The news reports also say that discussions between the CEO took place in
> early September and that Atmel's Board of Directors *declined* the offer at
> that time.

Yes, that did happen in September, this happened yesterday (Oct 2/2008):

http://www.eetimes.eu/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210605347&cid=NL_eeteu

"We feel our offer is too compelling not to take it to shareholders," said
Steve Sanghi, chairman, president and CEO at Microchip, during a conference
call with analysts following the announcement of the offer on Thursday (Oct.
2). "We came to this point after we heard from Atmel that they were not
interested."




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[Xiaofan Chen]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 6:08 PM, Bob Paddock <bob.paddock@...> wrote:

> On Thursday 02 October 2008 05:22:18 pm Weddington, Eric wrote:
>
>> Remember, the news reports says that this an *offer* to buy the company.
>> The news reports also say that discussions between the CEO took place in
>> early September and that Atmel's Board of Directors *declined* the offer at
>> that time.
>
> Yes, that did happen in September, this happened yesterday (Oct 2/2008):
>
> http://www.eetimes.eu/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210605347&cid=NL_eeteu
>
> "We feel our offer is too compelling not to take it to shareholders," said
> Steve Sanghi, chairman, president and CEO at Microchip, during a conference
> call with analysts following the announcement of the offer on Thursday (Oct.
> 2). "We came to this point after we heard from Atmel that they were not
> interested."
>

Rest assured that they will keep AVR lines, and majority of the MCU
lines like ARM7/ARM9 and the to be released Cortex M3 line and hopefully
the 8051 line (not so sure about AVR32 and the 4bit line).

Microchip's Sanghi: Why we want Atmel
      http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210605543&cid=NL_eet

With Microchip's stand of not obsoleting a product (they almost never do it),
the AVR customers will be happy. In my previous job, we used PIC and
AVR at the same time. In my current job, we use Atmel 8051 and ARM7
MCUs, I am not worried about the bid should the bid goes through. I
will no longer worry about the product obsolescence issue. Atmel just
obsoleted some 5V EEPROMs which caused us a few redesigns
switching to Microchip EEPROMs.

Xiaofan


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[jan-47]

On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 15:49:03 -0400
"David VanHorn" <microbrix@...> wrote:

>
> Seriously, it's possible that they will keep the AVR, and give us
> tools that work, and real support!
>
> Possible....
>

I don't think so. Tools that work from Microchip? Support from
Microchip?

We ditched Microchip a few years ago and switched to Atmel because of
Microchip's bad support and attitude. But of course, maybe they have
changed... Probably not.

/Janne


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[David VanHorn-2]

> We ditched Microchip a few years ago and switched to Atmel because of
> Microchip's bad support and attitude. But of course, maybe they have
> changed... Probably not.


That's scary..

I stopped using AVRs after I had yet another incident with Studio,
where ldi r16,10 didn't end up with 10 in R16.
It was repeatable, happening even with just the bare minimum of code.
I even sent them a screen capture video of it happening.. But no
useful response ever came.   Too much wasted time.

We're using ARMs now, with multi-party support.


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[jan-47]

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:52:23 -0400
"David VanHorn" <microbrix@...> wrote:

> > We ditched Microchip a few years ago and switched to Atmel because
> > of Microchip's bad support and attitude. But of course, maybe they
> > have changed... Probably not.
>
>
> That's scary..
>
> I stopped using AVRs after I had yet another incident with Studio,
> where ldi r16,10 didn't end up with 10 in R16.
> It was repeatable, happening even with just the bare minimum of code.
> I even sent them a screen capture video of it happening.. But no
> useful response ever came.   Too much wasted time.
>
> We're using ARMs now, with multi-party support.

I guess that's the way to go but sometimes it's hard to motivate the
use of a 32 bit CPU :*)

/Janne

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[Klaus Rudolph]

David VanHorn schrieb:

>> We ditched Microchip a few years ago and switched to Atmel because of
>> Microchip's bad support and attitude. But of course, maybe they have
>> changed... Probably not.
>
>
> That's scary..
>
> I stopped using AVRs after I had yet another incident with Studio,
> where ldi r16,10 didn't end up with 10 in R16.
> It was repeatable, happening even with just the bare minimum of code.
> I even sent them a screen capture video of it happening.. But no
> useful response ever came.   Too much wasted time.
>
> We're using ARMs now, with multi-party support.
>

Yes, I got also no answer on my questions from Atmel. I spoke with some
guys on embedded world fare and thought I am now in contact, but not one
email was answered... so I drop developing simulavrxx and stop also
using the devices for commercial projects ... yes, thats really bad!
Good hardware, but no chance to do real work without tools and
support... but support on ARM is not always better... have you ever
tried to get response from ST :-)




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