Inflection Points : eight bits to save two bits

This last planned guest post for the inflection point series coincidently overlaps with my latest article about how low 32-bit processors can go. This article would have started up a third series thread, but plans have changed which I will explain shortly in my next post.

In this latest guest post, Andy Gryc, senior product marketing manager at QNX Software Systems, observes that while 8-bit processors are cheaper than 32-bit processors, they are more costly to use than 32-bit processors because engineering time is expensive. Andy looks forward to the inflection point where 8- and 16-bit processors die away once and for all.

I saved this guest post for last in this series as I expect there might be a lively interchange between developers that use the different size processors.

I encourage you to read all of the posts for the inflection point series; maybe they will inspire you to share your observations. I would love to be able to consolidate different perspectives and lessons learned here. I suspect there are some valuable lessons to be gleaned from comparing such stories.

To make following this series easier (especially as multiple series overlap each other), I am including the index below to previous posts, both for this and the guest post channels.

Guest posts:

2010, February 22: Blurring Lines Between 8- and 32-bit Microcontrollers?

2010, February 15: Wireless Everywhere and Programmable Designs

2010, February 8 : Wireless baseband inflection point – SDR as a technological breakthrough

2010, February 1 : Of Windows, Newton’s, iPad’s and 10GBASE-T

2010, January 28 : Technology inflections : digital signal processing

Posts made here

2010, February 22: Inflection Points : Blurring 8- and 32-bit Microcontrollers

2010, February 15: Inflection Points : Wireless and Programmability

2010, February 8 : Inflection Points : Wireless and SDR

2010, February 1 : Inflection Points : timeline (networking)

2010, January 28 : Inflection Points : timeline

2010, January 26 : Inflection Points