RE: [avr-gcc-list] Experimental WinAVR/avr-gcc update for

[James Dabbs]

> I'm willing to bet that less than 25% of all AVR revenue comes from chips
that run gcc.

I'd actually take that bet.  The AVRFREAKS site suggests that a plurality of
developers use GCC.

I'll bet quite a bunch of their revenue comes from chips running gcc at this
point.  Atmel as clearly positioned the AVR as a "low barrier to entry"
part, which gives them an edge in certain ways over H8's and M16C's and
other parts aimed at a smaller number of higher-volume customers.  All of
the AVR design wins I know of are basically happenstance -- as a project
moved into the design phase, someone selected a microcontroller from the AVR
family by the seat of the pants because they had a dev kit and gcc.  I
realize that, prior to GCC, IAR was critical to the AVR's development as a
product.  But IAR has made good money from AVR tools, and IAR also supports
all of Atmel's competitors.  Atmel needs to consider this.  They're nuts not
to put elf into AVRStudio, because their competitors are all embracing GCC.