The most useful microcontroller?

Question

You use several different (micro)controllers on your show; AVR/Arduino, PIC, Propellar, whatnot.

Could you maybe say something about what you view as the strong and weak point for the different controllers?

jadew · Answer

The strongest and weakest point of any MCU actually coincide, it's simply how familiar you are with it. That aside, you will always judge weak and strong points based on the application at hand. For some projects you might care more about processing power (AVR > PIC usually) for some you might care about ADC resolution, or you may need a particular mix of peripheral features (PIC > AVR in this regard). Sometimes your needs will be so simple that you'll only care about price while other times the volume will be small and the requirements will be so generic that it just doesn't matter. In any case, the best MCU is the one you're most familiar with, which is why it's a good idea to get familiar with a family of chips that offer a lot of versatility and upgrade options.