Re: [avr-chat] This makes me sad

[John Day]

At 07:40 AM 9/13/2008, David Kelly wrote:
> No doubt if Atmel had known how broad their product line would be
> today when the original AVR was created they would assign register
> addresses differently. Then again I have no doubt many things would
> change. Then again just when do you stop designing and redesigning the
> darn thing and finally ship product?

Exactly. The first AVRs burst onto the scene in 1996 and things have 
changed dramatically since then. Form my point of view as an 
equipment designer Atmel should be praised for having as SMALL a 
range of parts as they do to cover such a diversity of application 
and as sane a register layout.

Sure, moving from one device to another can require some effort, 
often as little as some macros to change register configurations. But 
on the whole  it is far easier than for many other processor families.

As they say, "hindsight has 20/20 vision", if only Atmel knew then 
what they know now, if only they had technology then that they have now!

John