Microchip completes Atmel Aquisition with Controversy
Microchip has completed the merging of Atmel into their corporate structure, but some big problems have become apparent. These center around Atmel’s promises before the sale that Atmel severance packages to their employees would remain intact, when in reality this is not the case. An Atmel employee I know who shall remain anonymous fears the exodus of talent over this issue will decimate the core engineering groups inside a year. Given the usual 2-year roadmap of at least 4 die mask revisions for a part (and some parts have had *nine* revisions), this is a pretty big issue. EE Times article:
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.