RE: 555 v The Microcontroller:

fustini — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:27:31 GMT

Another advantage of the 555 is that it can go down to 1V in the 551 variant. Not too shabby. It makes applications like the Drawdio possible which uses 1 AAA.

However, someone on the #fmcg channel on freenode pointed out that TI's 16-bit uC, the MSP430, will go as low as 1.8V. It can even run off grapes. However, keeping with Paul's theme, 555 still beats microcontrollers on the high and low end of operating voltage.

Cheers,

Drew

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