On 11/12/22 09:41, Ethan Dicks via cctalk wrote: > > Yeah, the 555 is extremely simple and is well known and is fairly > cheap, simple MCUs are simple (and cheap) even if they aren't 100% > deterministic like a chip with 20-30 transistors. There's economic > advantage in flexibility.
There's also efficiency in mass-produced numbers. There are several Chinese MCUs that go for less than USD$0.10 in low quantities. I think the bottom end a couple of years ago was about USD$0.03. At that price point, you have to wonder if some of that isn't the packaging (tape reel) cost. There are far more MCUs made today than 555s, if that's any indication. And some of the newest ones feature neural net hardware (e.g. MAX78000). Do that with your 555s! I, for one, welcome our robot overlords. --Chuck
