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Top Ten for 2013 — Parallax Forums

Top Ten for 2013

LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
edited 2013-07-04 03:10 in General Discussion
A lot of ponder in this list... I still think Parallax should be #1.

http://electronicsnewsline.com/457/list-of-top-microcontroller-companies-in-the-world.html
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Comments

  • rod1963rod1963 Posts: 752
    edited 2013-02-05 09:19
    These are all major players in the embedded world. Parallax is at best a VAR in education/hobbyist market compared to them.
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2013-02-05 10:10
    I didn't see any criteria as to what made them the "top" in what categories for what reasons.....other than that, it's a list.

    Top 10 Ice Cream flavors:

    White Chocolate Raspberry
    Pistachio
    Turtle
    Eggnog
    Chocolate Peanut Butter Ripple
    Superman
    Blue Moon
    Lemon
    Caramel Pretzel Crunch
    Banana Cream Pie

    Edit: Disclaimer - these are actually not my favorite flavors or rated in any other rank that I know of. Just random flavors I chose. We all know that the manufacturer is just as important as the flavor. We could discuss ice cream but I don't want to hijack this thread! :smile:
  • dmagnusdmagnus Posts: 271
    edited 2013-02-05 10:25
    Top 10 Ice Cream flavors: :-)

    Maple Nut
    Pistachio
    Turtle
    Eggnog
    Chocolate Peanut Butter Ripple
    Superman
    Blue Moon
    Lemon
    Caramel Pretzel Crunch
    Banana Cream Pie
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2013-02-05 11:15
    Actually Chocolate Peanut Butter Ripple should be at the top..
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2013-02-05 11:24
    Oldbitcollector (Jeff) wrote: »
    Actually Chocolate Peanut Butter Ripple should be at the top..

    I added a disclaimer.....not my TOP 10 FAVORITES!! :smile:
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2013-02-05 11:27
    Hey I was thinking this thread was actually starting to talk about something worthwhile. That list in the OP is just silly..
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2013-02-06 08:02
    Top Microcontroller Companies in the World?

    Silicon Labs?
    Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe ?
    Infineon Technologies?
    NetSilicon?
    Rabbit Semiconductor ? Rabbit?
    Stock Point Electronics ?
    STC 8051 Microcontrollers?
    Western Design Center?
    MicroController Pros Corporation (µCPros) ?

    Top in what way? Sales, users, profits, parts shipped, parts used?

    The only microcontrollers I ever seen purchased (in my tiny world) are smartphones, tablets, quickstarts, Raspberry Pi's, and TMS eval boards (in that order).
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2013-02-06 08:18
    I have a web site I don't really use. I think I'll post my own list of "Top Microcontroller Companies". I will be sure to put Parallax at # 1. It will have just as much validity as the list at electronicsnewsline.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-02-06 08:29
    I guess the internet abused the Top Ten listings... lots exist that make no sense.

    Second, vanilla is and has long been the #1 ice cream flavor... something like 60% of all production.

    I was hoping somebody might come up with a better list rather than exotic flavors of ice cream. But disappointments are to be expected.

    These ten players in embedded could be by capital or sales. The reality is that they don't really care about selling a few chips at a time directly to us.
  • lardomlardom Posts: 1,659
    edited 2013-02-06 08:42
    Western Design Center – It is the original source and intellectual property owner of the industry standard W65C02 8-bit and W65C816 16-bit microprocessors.
    Note the phrase; "...owner of the industry standard..." How was this list made?
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-02-06 08:54
    LIars figure, figures lie... and web writers just fake it.

    The web is becoming more and more of a garbage in, garbage out sort of info resource.... search results are subsidised by advertisers that want attention.

    I still am a plain vanilla guy and know that most people are.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2013-02-06 09:12
    lardom wrote: »
    Note the phrase; "...owner of the industry standard..." How was this list made?
    Well, in this particular case (the 65C02 and 65C816) Western Design Center really _is_ the owner.. and the 65C02 _is_ an industry standard, they are produced in the hundreds of millions a _year_ and embedded in all kinds of applications. Cars, kitchen equipment, heart defibrillators (and for body-internal ones the WDC devices are as standard as they can possibly be as they're the only microcontrollers validated for bodily implants).

    For the rest of the list.. I'm not sure, but WDC deserves to be on a list of "Top Microcontroller Companies in the World" for the numbers alone. When you step down from ARM (3 billions a year?) and Intel (1.x billion a year? Those were the numbers two-three years back) you'll find WDC processors.

    -Tor
  • CircuitsoftCircuitsoft Posts: 1,166
    edited 2013-02-06 09:17
    I didn't think Intel made microcontrollers anymore...
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2013-02-06 09:38
    The other reason the 6502 is the industry standard is that Sky Net uses them in all the terminator models:

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/Terminator_6502_screen_dump.jpg
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2013-02-06 10:06
    Loopy Byteloose wrote: »
    LIars figure, figures lie... and web writers just fake it.

    The web is becoming more and more of a garbage in, garbage out sort of info resource.... search results are subsidised by advertisers that want attention.

    That's the great thing about statistics. You can bend and shape them to suit whatever you want to say, and not be lying. Just not telling all the truth.

    I find the "Best in class mileage, power, torque....etc" car commercials particularly amusing. Easy to be "best in class" when you define "class" in such a way you are alone in that class.
    I still am a plain vanilla guy and know that most people are.

    I prefer mint chocolate chip with vanilla as a second choice.
  • lardomlardom Posts: 1,659
    edited 2013-02-06 10:34
    Quote by Tor,
    WDC deserves to be on a list of "Top Microcontroller Companies in the World" for the numbers alone.
    Sounds like market share. I remember microsoft's marketing strategy was to license it's software. 'Windows' became the OS standard and hardware was "IBM compatable". But Apple was first with GUI, the mouse, expansion slots..etc. It was the choice of musicians, artists and photographers.. It took a while to realize what Steve Jobs accomplished.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-02-06 10:48
    lardom,
    But Apple was first with GUI, the mouse.... It took a while to realize what Steve Jobs accomplished.
    You mean "Xerox was the first with GUI, the mouse...It took a while to realize what Douglas Engelbart accomplished."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart

    Englebart, The Mother of all Demos:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY

    Steve was brilliant and all but not that brilliant.
  • lardomlardom Posts: 1,659
    edited 2013-02-06 10:55
    @Heater, That's true. That's why they lost their suit against Microsoft! I loved following the story. Steve Wozniak,in my mind, needed a heat sink on his brain. :smile:
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-02-06 11:05
    Of course when I say "Xerox" I mean Stanford.
  • rod1963rod1963 Posts: 752
    edited 2013-02-06 11:46
    WDC may be a lilliputian compared to the big boys on the list, but I've yet to see a argument why Parallax should be on the list. It's not like they can even compare in sales to WDC.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-02-06 13:36
    Oh my God,

    I had never watched "The Mother of All Demos" before I suggested it here.
    Doug was not just the "mouse man".
    So much going on in that demo that is ground breaking.
    I don't think we have achieved a lot of it for normal humans even now.
    And how the hell did they do that on the machines they had then?
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-02-06 16:00
    It would seem "The Mother of All Demos" included the first first folding editor. I ignorantly thought it first appeared with Occam.

    Skynet used 6502 instruction set! LMAO at seeing that, but it is unmistakable.
    The reality is that they don't really care about selling a few chips at a time directly to us.

    Directly, no. But that's just because they're in the semiconductor manufacturing business and not the distributing business. Let each company do what it does well. One wouldn't expect DigiKey to make microprocessors.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-02-06 23:10
    How many firsts can we spot in that "Mother of all demos video"?

    1) Mouse, obviously.
    2) The one hand chording keyboard, obviously if you have a mouse in one hand you don't want a keyboard designed for two hands.
    3) Folding editor, yes I first saw that in the Occam editor as well.
    4) More than that it's an outliner
    5) Document links, clickable words in the document.
    6) Document search with what almost looks like regular expressions
    7) Document sharing, collaborators working on a single document.
    8) The black text on white screen. Good grief all screens were green weren't they?
    9) Mind mapping. As it became known later. For Doug it was "Human Augmentation".
    10) The very idea of a computer on every desk.
    11) Video conferencing ?

    Looks like they were anticipating those links working across a network of computers so that is a fetal WWW right there.

    Not shown in that demo they had two dimensional drawing with vector graphics and the mouse. Parametric and object oriented.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2013-02-07 02:52
    Heater. wrote: »
    How many firsts can we spot in that "Mother of all demos video"?

    1) Mouse, obviously.
    2) The one hand chording keyboard, obviously if you have a mouse in one hand you don't want a keyboard designed for two hands.
    3) Folding editor, yes I first saw that in the Occam editor as well.
    4) More than that it's an outliner
    5) Document links, clickable words in the document.
    6) Document search with what almost looks like regular expressions
    7) Document sharing, collaborators working on a single document.
    8) The black text on white screen. Good grief all screens were green weren't they?
    I have only watched the first 25 minutes, saving the rest for later, but there was also a map (although just a simple vector map, but still a map) with embedded information so that you could click on any of the waypoints along your route to see what you're supposed to shop at that particular place.
    To me the document/link/map/link/folding demo he did was more advanced than what you generally see in use today, most of what we do is more static than that.
    Oh, and another first: He mentioned 'a computer on every desk', describing basically how we use computers today. In 1968 that was unheard of.
    Looks like they were anticipating those links working across a network of computers so that is a fetal WWW right there.
    Yep, definitely.
    Not shown in that demo they had two dimensional drawing with vector graphics and the mouse. Parametric and object oriented.
    Everything on the screen must have been vector graphics (and those letters looked a bit funny..), just look at the speed.. at that time memory was not just very expensive, it was also very small, so raster displays would have been both impractical and very slow, unlike the near-instant updates we saw in that video (I've just finished watching some demos of old computers from the late seventies/early eighties, and the screen update of those were just slightly faster than a decwriter console printer).

    -Tor
  • lardomlardom Posts: 1,659
    edited 2013-02-07 06:23
    I watched the first 30 minutes of the video, enough to know that I have to find out much more about Douglas Englebart. One question is why did Xerox lose so much ground to its competitors?
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2013-02-07 07:35
    Dealers of Lightning is a very good book about the early days of Xerox - PARC. It's been many years since I read it, but I think basically the problem was that Xerox management didn't want to - or couldn't figure out how to - do anything except build copiers.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-02-07 07:42
    Tor,

    You mean what they called "mind mapping" years later? I'll add it to the list. "Computer on every desk" as well.

    Could we put video-conferencing on the list?

    Yes, must have been vector graphics. In 1980 I was working with those big round radar displays. Even then they were all stroke drawn, including wonky text like Doug's. We had a "Raster Graphics Working Group" always on the look out to move to pixel based displays but as our displays were so big and the required resolution so high the amount of memory required was not feasible. I'm mean, 2048 * 2048 would be 4Mbits! Our computers driving the displays only had a hand full of K bytes at the time.

    I think I misled everyone earlier, it was not an Englebart video with the CAD drawing system it was Ivan Sutherland and his Sketchpad demo in 1963. Also very impressive.
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2013-02-07 07:52
    Tor wrote: »
    Well, in this particular case (the 65C02 and 65C816) Western Design Center really _is_ the owner.. and the 65C02 _is_ an industry standard, they are produced in the hundreds of millions a _year_ and embedded in all kinds of applications. Cars, kitchen equipment, heart defibrillators (and for body-internal ones the WDC devices are as standard as they can possibly be as they're the only microcontrollers validated for bodily implants).

    Wow! I didn't know that. I thought 6502 was just "old" like any of a zillion others that aren't used anymore. Being validated for bodily implants is a huge deal, and being the only one is a multiplier. I really should pay more attention. Thanks for posting this.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2013-02-07 08:40
    @prof_braino,

    Another "old one" still in production is the 8051.. although not as old as the 6502 (the original 8051 came in 1980), they're produced in large amounts still. Intel don't make them anymore, but others do, and, just as for the WDC 65C02 many of those are in the form of 'cores' for FPGA or ASICs. But you can still get them in chip form.

    -Tor
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2013-02-08 00:26
    Here's my list:

    The Top Innovative Microcontroller Company in the World
    1) Parallax
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