PIC or IC, am i out of practice???

Hi, just wanted to ask everyone's opinion on PIC V IC.

I use to use IC's all the time, but when i got introduced to PIC's i found little need to use IC's.

Does anyone think there is great need to use IC's anymore(apart from the cost factor), is there anything an IC can do that a PIC can't?

Dont give up your ICs.They will need you for your embeded designs.Some basic logic IC's are now out of date.
But the nice opamps (Audio stuff), regulators etc... won't expire as soon.

i dont see how an ic could have much advantage but some ic's can drive higher current (e.g 555 timer can handle 200ma) than pics which means that you dont need to add transistors but pic's can only handle about 20ma. you can just add a transistor but this will take more space

matk95 said:

i dont see how an ic could have much advantage but some ic's can drive higher current (e.g 555 timer can handle 200ma) than pics which means that you dont need to add transistors but pic's can only handle about 20ma. you can just add a transistor but this will take more space

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I see your point in the current draw factor, but i would still rather use a transistor on the end of a PIC then set up a 555, the components on a 555 is probable still more than setting up a transistor with a resistor.

You guys talking only about 555 there are many cmos ICs available with very few output current provided.

Well...

Well...

Pic Is Also An Ic...

Regards,

Simran..

simrantogether said:

Well...

Pic Is Also An Ic...

Regards,

Simran..

Click to expand...

Yes but a IC is limted to what it can do, where as a PIC can follow different instructions on the one output.

shaneshane1 said:

Hi, just wanted to ask everyone's opinion on PIC V IC.

I use to use IC's all the time, but when i got introduced to PIC's i found little need to use IC's.

Does anyone think there is great need to use IC's anymore(apart from the cost factor), is there anything an IC can do that a PIC can't?

Click to expand...

Lot's of things for IC's still to do, just that many can be replaced by a single cheap PIC.

Well...

believe it...

IC's are as imp as pic.

you can interface any ic in the world with pic microcontrollers.

even when you have to use relay for interface...

Regards,

Simran..

shaneshane1 said:

Yes but a IC is limted to what it can do, where as a PIC can follow different instructions on the one output.

Click to expand...

That misses the point. Ask the original question again but replace the word "PIC" with "dog" and replace the word "IC" with "mammal". Remember that op-amps, regulators, and any number of other devices are also ICs.

That said: for complex tasks, logic ICs are more or less obsoleted by microcontrollers. There are simple tasks which might not warrant them, though. A while ago I built a foosball scoreboard which used logic ICs and some discrete transistor logic, just for the experience. It was my first digital circuit. If I had to make another one, I'd use a microcontroller. My board space would be halved, my part count would be maybe 1/3 of the original, it would be much easier to make configurable on the fly, and it would use less power. But I would still use hex buffer ICs on the longer control lines.


Torben

Torben said:

That misses the point. Ask the original question again but replace the word "PIC" with "dog" and replace the word "IC" with "mammal". Remember that op-amps, regulators, and any number of other devices are also ICs.

That said: for complex tasks, logic ICs are more or less obsoleted by microcontrollers. There are simple tasks which might not warrant them, though. A while ago I built a foosball scoreboard which used logic ICs and some discrete transistor logic, just for the experience. It was my first digital circuit. If I had to make another one, I'd use a microcontroller. My board space would be halved, my part count would be maybe 1/3 of the original, it would be much easier to make configurable on the fly, and it would use less power. But I would still use hex buffer ICs on the longer control lines.


Torben

Click to expand...

I do tend to think that regulators are not IC's, forgetting that they are from the same family, I tend to use a 5V regulator without giving a second thought to it being a IC, I used to hate people talking about PIC'S when i was wanting to do a project, they would say, thats easy just use a PIC!

Now i am turning into one of them.

I see people posting things on this forum about thier project, and just think how much easier it would be if they used a PIC.

shaneshane1 said:

I see people posting things on this forum about thier project, and just think how much easier it would be if they used a PIC.

Click to expand...

To be fair, most of them are school assignments, so they aren't allowed to use a PIC, it has to be old technology.

shaneshane1 said:

II see people posting things on this forum about thier project, and just think how much easier it would be if they used a PIC.

Click to expand...

--40 years earlier--

I saw people writing letters to editors of "Radioelectronics" magazine about their project, and just think how much easier it would be if they use TTL instead of transistors.

--40 years later--

I see people exchanging design ideas via telepathing about their project, and just think how much easier it would be if they use a LEG(which uses voice programming) instead of ARM or PICs.

simrantogether said:

Well...
Pic Is Also An Ic...

Click to expand...

Thank you simrantogether. Its all about purpose and advancement. If you stick to using an IC or a group of IC's forever, the world of consumer electronics would not span larger then simple typewriters. A microcontroller is just another IC, an advanced version used where decision making and data interfacing is mandatory. ICs have been shrunken to fit inside microcontrollers to help it. A microcontroller alone is not all powerful but has an army of IC at its beconning call under its hood. Example, the UART IC is inside a microcontroller, a shift register IC is inside a microcontroller. An ADC is inside a microcontroller.

People should not draw lines between the two except for the concept of DEDICATED. An IC is dedicated and does not change, yet this does not make it so limited. Take the FTDI USB-to-RS232 or any other of their USB ICs. These are by all means ICs but in actuality are microcontrollers programmed to do one task and programmed to not be reprogrammed. These perform decision making and data interfacing just like a microcontroller but are sold as an IC. Take an ASIC. Its an IC by the name alone. Yet these things do complex task with equal and more power than a microcontroller.

Well since a PIC is a collection of ICs and is flexible why do we not just drop discreet ICs all together? Because a PIC cannot be all ICs. No one thing can be all things.

So we can no longer refer to an IC in terms of discreet logic building blocks. An IC is just DEDICATED while a microcontroller has yet to be dedicated

shaneshane1 said:

Hi, just wanted to ask everyone's opinion on PIC V IC.

I use to use IC's all the time, but when i got introduced to PIC's i found little need to use IC's.

Does anyone think there is great need to use IC's anymore(apart from the cost factor), is there anything an IC can do that a PIC can't?

Click to expand...

I use logic gates to save on the number of PIC pins depending on what I need done (ie. what's the point of wasting 4 pins on a PIC to monitor something when you can just use a single 4-input OR gate?)

As many previous posters have already said, dedicated ICs are great for taking the load off your microcontroller, or for saving pins.

For example: **broken link removed** uses a cheap CD4022 chip to handle multiplexing for the 6-digit display. With the outboard chip, instead of needing 6 pins for multiplex control, it only needs 2 pins. And it could have done 8 digits and still only needed the same 2 pins on the microcontroller.

Another example:
**broken link removed** uses a MAX7219 chip and needs only 3 pins to do the whole display. If I interfaced those displays directly to the MCU I would need 12 pins.

I've used many times, to complement PICs, the CD4051/52/53 as data selectors and the CD4094 to convert serial output to parallel (their strobe capability is incredibly useful).

Could they be easily replaced by a micro? I do not think so.

In theory 74 & 4000 series IC should have died when PAL & GAL ICs came out, problem was (unlike PICs) is the programmers were so expensive.
Glue logic is still handy but I try to avoid it when I can.