Brads Electronic Projects Forum

11 Myths About 8-Bit Microcontrollers

http://www.electronicdesign.com/microco ... ontrollers

Thanks. I tried commenting, but the sign-up page didn't work. Here's what i would have commented:

• • Another myth I would add is that everything can benefit from 32 bits, or even from a MULtiply instruction. I've brought many products to market with PIC16's. Every one of them was just twiddling I/O bits, and the maximum math amounted to adding or subtracting 16- or 24-bit quantities. Most of the math need was limited to 8 bits. For every one of these products, most of the job was dealing with 8 bits (or fewer) at a time. Not a single one of them had any use for a multiply instruction. I did need a divide for one, but that part wasn't time-critical, and it was ok to do it in software.

That's a good read.

I had fallen in to the trap that 8-bit MCU's were perhaps going to be overtaken. especially with the power house microcontroller DEV boards available now like Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone's etc... However I have only ever used 8-bit microcontrollers and they have been perfect for all the projects I have used them in. I'm glad that I don't have to 'upgrade' anytime soon.