Jay Carlson gathered 21 different microcontrollers — all less than $1 — to find out which ones were good in various applications.
These MCUs were selected to represent their entire families — or sub-families, depending on the architecture — and in my analysis, I’ll offer some information about the family as a whole.
If you want to scroll down and find out who the winner is, don’t bother — there’s really no sense in trying to declare the “king of $1 MCUs” as everyone knows the best microcontroller is the one that best matches your application needs. I mean, everyone knows the best microcontroller is the one you already know how to use. No, wait — the best microcontroller is definitely the one that is easiest to prototype with. Or maybe that has the lowest impact on BOM pricing?
I can’t even decide on the criteria for the best microcontroller — let alone crown a winner.
What I will do, however, is offer a ton of different recommendations for different users
Check out the contenders, the cores used and the results in the article here.
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