Is 18F67J60 ethernet uC still popular

robleso7473 · Joined: 25 Mar 2009 Posts: 47

This is more of a higher level question on what the state of the 18F67J60 ethernet uC status. I know it's still being sold but most of reference designs and app notes date back to 2007.

Did it fall out of favor for some new uC or are there bugs associated it with it that I don't know about.

Any info would be helpful as I'm contemplating using it in a future design.

Thanks,
Oscar

temtronic · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 4:43 pm

As with all microcomputers ( actually all ICs) if you wait a week or two, someone will have a 'newer,bigger,better,cheaper' chip. As to whether they are 'better' for you it depends upon if you need the new features. Just because a product comes out doesn't mean it'll perform any better than what you have now.There's a lot to be said about something that's 'tried and true'.Also depending upon production/inventory levels it might be better to keep what you have.If you don't need all the new 'bells and whistles,why invest the time and resources into R&Ding to see if the 'new' PIC is better!
Yes, it's nice to have more memory and onboard peripherals for 'future' use however careful programming can always squeeze more code into the silicon.
If the new chip is pin for pin compatible, that really helps the decision as R&D 'proof of concept' ( does it really work !) can be done in a day or two.
Providing of course the code can be ported over easily.

asmallri · Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 1635 Location: Perth, Australia

robleso7473 · Joined: 25 Mar 2009 Posts: 47

Thank you for the feedback gentlemen.

All your points are understood.
Even with all the issues/drawbacks of this device I am not planning on
ever transmitting more than 100kB/sec of data across the network so I
don't want to incur the cost of a 10/100 device.

My application code can be condensed to less than 10K so a 128KB '67J60(with much of it storing the stack) is still very attractive being a single chip.

My question was leaning more towards the history and bugs of these devices. I read somewhere that Microchip's TCP/IP stack had some bugs but those can be dealt with. I was thinking maybe someone knew more about the actual performance and reliability of the integrated 10Mbps PHY in the device. It just seems amazing to me that they crammed all of that into an 8-bit uC.

What worries me is when you see Microchip's WebSeminars on these devices the guy starts out with #1 on using dynamic variables then goes on to #2 on the "GET" form method and #3 on the "POST" method and he ends #3 saying that there's a few more coming on sending email and setting security(passwords and such) but #4 never appeared on the site. This leads me to believe that either the product wasn't selling well and no interest was shown from the customers or that the videos were too cheezy and they put an end to that.