Atmel XMEGA MC303 processor board?

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ArnoldB
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Posted by ArnoldB: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 07:47 PM
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We know that Atmel made it clear that mere mortals can't have the xplain. But according to http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resourc... there is the MC303 xmega board from Atmel (also part of MC323). Avnet lists the ATAVRMC303 board with 26 weeks lead time for $62.

Has anyone spotted the MC303 or MC323 in the wild? I noted the above app. note is dated 10/08, so almost a year for Atmel to bring it out.

Stealing Proteus doesn't make you an engineer.

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AVR Microcontrollers, megaAVR and tinyAVR
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Bronze Marktheusch
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Posted by theusch: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 08:00 PM
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DigiKey also lists those parts. '303 is "non-stock"; '323 is expected 15-September. Don't hold your breath. ;)

The other distis seem to have similar "don't hold your breath" listings.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.

I've never met a pig I didn't like, as long as you have some salt and pepper.

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Gold Markclawson
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Posted by clawson: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 08:02 PM
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Quote:

'323 is expected 15-September

Did it say which year? ;-)

I'm guessing the first "mainstream" Xmega board for the masses will be the AVR-PX128A1 one from Olimex

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Bronze Marktheusch
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Posted by theusch: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 08:10 PM
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Quote:

I'm guessing the first "mainstream" Xmega board for the masses will be the AVR-PX128A1 one from Olimex

Do you think so? The part number has been listed for months, with the less-than-informative response to clicking. As that model of Xmega is now available you'd think that "slapping together" a dev board wouldn't be a long lead project for Olimex.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.

I've never met a pig I didn't like, as long as you have some salt and pepper.

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Gold Markclawson
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Posted by clawson: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 08:15 PM
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Remember that it's the habit in Europe for the entire month of August to be taken as a holiday. So I think maybe no one's been home just recently...

...in fact I just went to their home page and surprise, surprise note the central message:

http://www.olimex.com/dev/index....

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ArnoldB
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Posted by ArnoldB: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 08:44 PM
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I don't hold my breath, I was more curious if the Atmel motor guys managed to beat the Atmel xmega eval board guys to market.

I am not sure that any board will become the xmega board for the masses - due to lack of masses. Atmel might have missed the window of opportunity with all the xmega delays.

I haven't seen the data and price for the Olimex, so can't say anything about it. Mikroe has said they work on an xmega board, too. And already today less than 40€ can buy me an alvidi xavrb xmega module with an SD card slot, but unfortunately without USB. The only company without an xmega board seems to be Atmel.

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thmjpr
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Posted by thmjpr: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 09:03 PM
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ArnoldB wrote:
I am not sure that any board will become the xmega board for the masses - due to lack of masses. Atmel might have missed the window of opportunity with all the xmega delays.

Dev kits make a huge difference in adoption IMO. Although not necessary, a simple/cheap one like the xplain would really increase hobbyist interest.

I don't understand why it seems like such a low priority to them.

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leon_heller
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Posted by leon_heller: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 09:34 PM
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Perhaps the yield from their fab is very poor, and they won't be able to keep up with demand for the Xplain board. None of the distributors seem to have many chips in stock, and the lead times are rather long (12 weeks), which isn't very encouraging for companies like Olimex.

I was thinking of designing a board for the ATXMEGA64A1-AU, but Farnell only has one in stock, and hasn't got any of the other chips.

Leon

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thmjpr
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Posted by thmjpr: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 10:17 PM
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leon_heller wrote:
Perhaps the yield from their fab is very poor, and they won't be able to keep up with demand for the Xplain board. None of the distributors seem to have many chips in stock, and the lead times are rather long (12 weeks), which isn't very encouraging for companies like Olimex.

I was thinking of designing a board for the ATXMEGA64A1-AU, but Farnell only has one in stock, and hasn't got any of the other chips.

Leon


American distributors must be hogging all of the parts :)

Avnet has 3,700 128A1
Mouser has about 1,300 of each (128/64).

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ArnoldB
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Posted by ArnoldB: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 10:30 PM
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leon_heller wrote:
Perhaps the yield from their fab is very poor, and they won't be able to keep up with demand for the Xplain board. None of the distributors seem to have many chips in stock, and the lead times are rather long (12 weeks), which isn't very encouraging for companies like Olimex.
My guess is also that low yield is behind some of the problems with the xmegas. An other one might being Atmels move to become fabless and firing people. And I won't exclude mismanagement, aka incompetence, too.

But let's face it, the delivery situation is much better than it was a few month ago. Still not all of the 12 or 14 announced xmegas are available at all. But you usually get those available in quantities of thousand.

E.g. Avnet alone has more than 3000 128A1's in stock http://www.stkcheck.com/evs/atme... And these are the ones companies like Olimex prefer to use on their dev boards.

leon_heller wrote:
I was thinking of designing a board for the ATXMEGA64A1-AU, but Farnell only has one in stock, and hasn't got any of the other chips.
Mouser and Arrow both have more than thousand in stock. http://www.stkcheck.com/evs/atme... beating Farnell's one piece hands down. If you need more than thousand you apparently have a problem.

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leon_heller
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Posted by leon_heller: Tue. Sep 1, 2009 - 11:11 PM
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I vaguely remember hearing somewhere that Atmel was going fabless. Microchip believes in having their own fabs but they don't build any from scratch. Their CEO has said: "We don't ever build fabs. We buy other people's mistakes." They use TSMC for the 0.18 um PIC32, though, as their fabs only go down to 0.25 um. It's an interesting difference in corporate strategy between Microchip and Atmel.

Leon

Leon Heller G1HSM

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