Re: USB Host

From: Ulf Samuelsson (ulf_at_a-t-m-e-l.com)
Date: 01/23/05 

Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 14:49:45 +0100

> First time I'd ever taken on a new processor with this much ease. So, I
guess
> I've found programming in assembly on the AVR very nice.

> However, that positive experience was colored by a number of subsequent
> experiences. One is that I have to go though a local FAE who often then
forwards
> my questions back to France (in the case of the ARM) and it can take
several days to get
> my first reply back, though it often happened in about 24-36 hours.
> With Microchip, for example, I've a long distance phone call I can make...

You can always contact the support departments at avr or at91supprot ath
atmel doth com.
The www.avrfreaks.net is another source of info.
Personally, I prefer identifying and fixing the problem at a small customer,
before the large customer gets pissed off.

> I had already read that Atmel (on their site) was nearly
> ready for sampling on the AT91FR40162-66CI, so although I expected some
delay I
> didn't expect the 10 months I experienced.
...
> Needless to say, I've not specified any Atmel parts and I'm not planning
to.
>
>
> Atmel has made us feel exactly like how we impacted their bottom line. If
you
> can see _your_ impact in their annual report, you get treated accordingly.
And
> if you can't see your impact there, likewise is also true.
>
> This can be important to some. It is, to me. This isn't something I
bring up
> because I feel a mission here. I like the AVR a lot and I really enjoyed
using
> the STK500 board, which was provided to me at an excellent price and has
served
> me well. The documentation is good, too. Also, my experiences with
programming
> on the family is excellent and the products are carried at Digikey in some
> quantity. So there is a lot going for this family of Atmel's. I don't
pause
> for a second to consider them in my hobby projects and, in fact, I keep
tubes of
> them around here for that purpose.
>
> But as far as relationships go, I do not feel that I can count on Atmel to
be
> there when the chips are down, so to speak. Not at volumes my company
has,
> anyway. I guess it's going to take some effort (on both our parts, I
suppose)
> to improve the lost trust.

I think these are quite valid points, but I think they affect both large and
small customers.
SAP certainly does not make any differences.
Atmel has still some work to do in its internal business systems.

The sampling system has been really problematic.
Before 2004, the sampling system was more or less manual
During most of 2004, the sample department was simply overloaded
due to unexpected consequences of the SAP implementation
It also did not send enough information to keep the stocklevels
so parts would not be ordered in advance.
There is no feedback to the distributor when samples are to be shipped
so they cannot tell you anything until the samples arrive.

People have been working on a new sampling system for about a year
now so hopefully things will improve during 2005

I think in your case, it was probably just that the part was announced too
early.
One way of handling this is to make a conscious decision
to avoid considering parts which are not in production.

> And perhaps I'll see about that some time in the
> future when I don't need to rely on being provided some urgent attention.
It
> may very well turn out that things are much better. But I just don't know
> because I don't specify their parts in my commercial projects, now.
Luckily,
> there are other excellent choices.

> Jon

Relevant Pages

  • Re: USB Host
    ... > I've seen the AVR designed out, ... One is that I have to go though a local FAE (or my distributor, ... in a case of regarding Atmel samples when I was wanting to ... about our tiny role in their bottom line. ...
    (comp.arch.embedded)
  • ANN: ESF support for the Atmel AVR 8-Bit RISC microcontroller
    ... EmINENT Microsystems Inc. announces Embedded Software Framework support ... for the AVR 8-Bit RISC family of processors from Atmel Corporation. ... Embedded Software Framework software suite includes ESF RTOS a simple, ... The AVR product portfolio consists of 58 devices. ...
    (comp.lang.cpp)
  • Re: Migrating from PIC18 to ARM: which MCU to choose?
    ... An Schwob in the USA skrev: ... Obviously Atmel has the knowledge to design a SAM3 as well as AVR with both Ethernet and CAN. ... You can get samples from the production lot now of the AT91SAM3S4AA,so it is very close. ...
    (comp.arch.embedded)
  • Re: Moving from 8051 to AVR
    ... I think you have to remember Ulf works for Atmel; ... Don't think the AVR will be obsolete anytime soon. ... Assuming the same technology, and not too high pincount, ... When you are looking at 100-200 pin chips this does not matter. ...
    (comp.arch.embedded)