Hey everyone! I'm reviewing $1 (@ 100 QTY) general-purpose 8/16/32-bit MCUs from a wide range of vendors (NXP/Freescale, Microchip/Atmel, Silicon Labs, Texas Instruments, Renesas, ST, Infineon), and I'd like to include an AVR part. The review will include quantitative comparisons between feature sets, benchmarking, power analysis, plus more qualitative stuff (development environment, SDKs, compiler choices, development/debugging experience, etc).
The Atmel SAM D10 was an obvious choice (and might end up leading the pack when all is said and done), but, somewhat to my surprise, I'm really struggling to find an AVR part that seems comparable to the rest of the field. The part I'm testing with is the ATTiny84, but it's pretty spartan on peripherals, only runs at 10 MHz at 3.3V, and doesn't even have an internal oscillator that can run the part at full speed. While I bet it was great when it came out, it seems like an older part that probably shouldn't be used in new designs.
The brand new 417/814/816/817 should help (especially with the internal oscillator issue), but the part doesn't seem like it's widely in production yet, and I can't seem to find it at any retailers, so I don't think I'll want to include it in my write-up.
Are there any parts you suggest looking at that I've glossed over? Or is the <$1 market not something Atmel is invested in for its general-purpose 8-bit line? (which is totally understandable — just wanted to check)
Thanks for the feedback!