Anouncing the development of FT90x compilers!

[Kalain]

I also wouldn’t be against paying a subscription in order to keep it up to date. Something along the lines of buy the compiler for the current price include 3 years or so of free updates then maybe charge 50 bucks or so a year to be able to update. I wouldn’t be willing to go much more then that, to many other options out there now, but something along those lines.

Yep, I agree with this in order to get more frequent updates.
A software which is not updated so frequently (at least for known bugs) is dying slowly...

[Dxmaxim]

What happened to their PIC compiler once they started an ARM compiler is probably now going to be happening with their ARM compiler now that they are starting an FTDI compiler?

Exactly the ratio last year was 6 to 1 in the favor of the ARM compiler PIC32 did not see 1 upgrade and now mE says they will release and PIC32 upgrade and an ARM upgrade this the ratio is 7 to 1 what will the ratio be for the PIC compilers with FTDI included

The story op employing more people we hear in this forum since 2007 and still not done

Does the update include fixes for the PIC Ethernet library? Cause the faulty library has cost some people customers and contracts!

[Dxmaxim]

I also wouldn’t be against paying a subscription in order to keep it up to date. Something along the lines of buy the compiler for the current price include 3 years or so of free updates then maybe charge 50 bucks or so a year to be able to update. I wouldn’t be willing to go much more then that, to many other options out there now, but something along those lines.

Yep, I agree with this in order to get more frequent updates.
A software which is not updated so frequently (at least for known bugs) is dying slowly...

To me a pay once perpetual license is not a sustainable business model simply because all products reach a saturation point after which there are no more sales or the numbers are too low to support the company. Not with standing that a dev could use the same product for the next 10 years developing on a small group of devices - PIC centric .

Some sort of annual maintenance or new features upgrade fee would be acceptable.

[p.erasmus]

Some sort of annual maintenance or new features upgrade fee would be acceptable.

This we are telling mE for many years ,however then the updates should at lease be released 2 time per year and noticeable addition and modification should be seen.
lately mE does a release when the people are really getting aggressive but then it is also clear that very little has been done to the compiler a good example was the dsPIC release of 2014
very very little has been done to it.

I run a few software packages Proteus -ISIS and ARRES for example it has an yearly update subscription but the updates are regularly and new libraries and devices are added you see the new things in each release .
mE should understand that we use the tools to earn our bread and butter so we have to stay with hunger because they do not support the product properly

mE will remain a Hobby tool supplier even if they add 100 compiler to there product list -
as said many times in this forum they are hardware driven and support only in Software what is needed to use there hardware for any custom projects their software just does not stand up to the task,I have stopped to use the mE tools for any customer projects after the release of the ARM compilers that was the point where the support of the microchip tool came to a stand still.

If one closely watch the releases from mE you will notice that in the last few months to 1 year only Development boards with ARM chips has been released there are no new additions to the MCHP line of products

To me its clear mE has dropped Microchip they focus totally on ARM and new products such FTD however they do not want to announce this now because the pillar which support the money to achieve this ARM road map is the MCHP tool at the moment

This is one of the reason they use the Eratta of the PIC32 MZ as an excuse that there is no updates however this could be true for PIC32 but why we see no improvements on PIC and dsPIC compilers many many devices and peripherals are not supported in the compilers and the devices has very little errata

The fact remain if you are a person that develops products you can not relay on mE products not because they are bad but of lack of support on the new raod map of mE specially if you are PIC user

[janni]

To me a pay once perpetual license is not a sustainable business model simply because all products reach a saturation point after which there are no more sales or the numbers are too low to support the company.

But selling hardware and treating compilers as add-on value is a sustainable business model . Problem (from our point of view) is that to expand with such model mE needs new groups of products (and new compilers). Neglecting older compilers to the point where users get desperate is risky, but probably included in expansion costs and outbalanced by profits.

Some sort of annual maintenance or new features upgrade fee would be acceptable.

This was suggested earlier, but it probably would not work well for markets targeted by mE, i.e. hobby and education.

mE will remain a Hobby tool supplier even if they add 100 compiler to there product list

Your words may actually be a balm on mE managers' hearts, Peter . mE may claim otherwise but I suspect that the company wouldn't even notice if their compilers stopped to be used for commercial software development.

[Dxmaxim]

mE will remain a Hobby tool supplier even if they add 100 compiler to there product list

They may not notice, but $299 is a price tag that puts you in the region of other professional products. Owing to this, Mikroe should be anticipating professional use. The lack of support and mute response to customers is unprofessional - not that that means anything in a millennium generation world.

If as you say they are a hardware developer, supporting their products with software then that is a downward spiral and an eventual loss of business for them. If there are FT90x enthusiasts monitoring this forum, how much early adoption can be anticipated if the prevailing expectation is poor product support, and an eventual shrug off once the product or Mikroe's Compiler matures.

I feel that the PIC based developers are getting a raw deal since they are not able to take advantage of the advances made by Microchip, or enjoy stable projects at the moment after paying for both hardware and software products (ETHERNET library = I license + EasyPIC DEV PCB + CLICK ETHERNET CLICK BOARD) ie at the very least a $450 investment for a set of tools that don't work resulting in no ETHERNET based POC to demonstrate!

A balm for their hearts

[fred85]

Your words may actually be a balm on mE managers' hearts, Peter . mE may claim otherwise but I suspect that the company wouldn't even notice if their compilers stopped to be used for commercial software development.

What both you and possibly Me are forgetting is that the hobbiest is only willing to pay so much. At one time they were the only game in town essentially, that is no longer the case by a long shot. Now just look at the cheap dev boards and tool chains available just from the manufactures. Particularly for ARM they are selling in some cases full boards for cheaper then what you can buy the featured chip for. They all have either free or limited compilers and dirt cheap flash programmers. If a hobbiest can get something for free that’s just as good or better they will. At one point MPLAB was crap but now even the free version is fine particularly for a hobbiest.

I quite frankly, no offense to me don’t think their prospects in the ARM realm are very good, unless they radically lower the prices of their boards to compete with the never-ending flood of cheap Asian imports not to mention the manufacturers on cheap boards.

Any time a company neglects a portion of their customer base it never works out to well, unless that company is a monopoly and they aren’t. The ease at which someone can find information now and compare products and get feedback from users is far easier then even 5 years ago. Rarely in any forum do you see a ringing endorsement for Me’s compilers, so frankly they had better get their **** together. That includes both hobbiest and pros by the way. A consistent comment in any forum is overpriced boards and crap compilers.

Oh and don't forget Arduino, they are taking a sizeable chunk of the hobbiest beginner market.

EDIT
As far as the educational market any real college or university will be training their students using software thats actually used in industry.

[DigitalDunc]

This should be interesting. I'm thinking I need to get my hands on a few of these FT90x micros and play to see just what they can do. Just one little thing. Your development team NEEDS to grow or you risk having your dinner snatched by the next new kid on the block. After all I am not the only customer and they are all a demanding lot.

[Dxmaxim]

Oh and don't forget Arduino, they are taking a sizeable chunk of the hobbiest beginner market.

I've had that discussion with Microchip representatives at many seminars and events, and they are vary blasé about it. Then when the chipKIT 32s came out they point you in that direction and really its a cannon to take out a flower.

And the irony is try and Google any midrange project with the keyword ARDUINO and there is always some thing in a forum or a blog post. Try the same with Microchip and you struggle. I recently had to ask via official channels for help with microchip code samples for something that was readily available with ARDUINO.

So it really just seems to be the way of things: The Hobbyist built up the Giants and now the giants are too tall!

[fred85]

I've had that discussion with Microchip representatives at many seminars and events, and they are vary blasé about it. Then when the chipKIT 32s came out they point you in that direction and really its a cannon to take out a flower.

And the irony is try and Google any midrange project with the keyword ARDUINO and there is always some thing in a forum or a blog post. Try the same with Microchip and you struggle. I recently had to ask via official channels for help with microchip code samples for something that was readily available with ARDUINO.

So it really just seems to be the way of things: The Hobbyist built up the Giants and now the giants are too tall!

I think all the main manufactures have some type of Arduino platform now. It’s been discussed in several forums basically it’s used as cheap advertising, brand exposure.

I’m constantly getting emails from manufactures and distributors about Arduino stuff. I’ve never once bought anything Arduino related.

I’ve checked the mainline distributors for FTDI FT90X chip and none in North America have it, so good luck with that.

[LGR]

Fast graphics is fine and good, but embedded applications often hinge on peripherals. How do you do ethernet or wifi or how many uarts does this thing have? USB modes? Bluetooth? We're not talking about the important details.

[rajkovic]

Fast graphics is fine and good, but embedded applications often hinge on peripherals. How do you do ethernet or wifi or how many uarts does this thing have? USB modes? Bluetooth? We're not talking about the important details.

here you can find more details about peripherals: http://www.ftdichip.com/MCU.html

[Megahurts]

I like the addition mikroe staff.

If it can do RTOS or a boot-able "kernel" like library layer that your tool chains would support, could be a serious contender with the competition.

waiting to see how it compares in test comparisons.

[mbruck]

You don't know situation about AVR compilers. PIC users should be happy. At least they have "some" update. I have full licence for AVR pascal compiler and after several years of terrible, terrible bad support I switched to Atmel AVR studio last year.
I thought: "Should I depend of incompetence company, or I can invest some time and 0 $ to switch to even better compiler"?
I have 3 boards from mE, and I don't use it anymore. Long live Arduino.

Staff from mE can't understand they live from us. Or they are blind.

Mladen Bruck

Edit:
Just hope someone from FTDI company will read all this comments.

[ilferrari]

I've been complaining on the PIC32 forum about a broken library function which people have reported for months: Flash library not working

Then I noticed that they have not updated their PIC32 compiler in almost 2 years. I guess the joke's on me for asking questions like that.