Schiit Urd Has Launched!

[Superdad]

On 7/21/2023 at 10:40 AM, Paul R said:

I have a Mac mini here that got thrown thru a wall, and still works.

Not sure that is such a ringing endorsement Paul. I mean, someone must have been pretty frustrated with that Mac to throw it through a wall! 

[Superdad]

10 hours ago, Paul R said:

Well, it actually involved a squirrel in the house and discouraging said squirrel… 🤠

Yeah, around our house we try to limit their screen time. Too much and they get a little nuts… 

[Superdad]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

Just different vendor - Atmel (who purchased Microchip which was original vendor of PIC).

???  

Microchip bought bought Atmel (and probably 30 other chip companies over the years). Atmel's equivalent to PIC processors was AVR.  

[This all leaving aside all of ARM processor world--much of it also with Microchip, as with ATSAM series (which we use a couple of on EtherREGEN PCBs).]

 

Of course everything else you wrote is quite correct.  And ask any DAC maker who has spent time with XMOS and their programming environment and you will get a half hour rant about the evil and stupidity of a lot of what they have done. No surprise that Schiit and others (e.g. Amanero using Atmel and Xilinx) have steered clear of XMOS. 

Just because everything and the kitchen sink can be thrown into a chip series in an attempt to please all of the market--does not mean that designers wanting to do very specific things will like it.

While I am sure it was not a trivial exercise for Schitt to write their own USB MAC for a very small PIC processor (though perhaps they licensed a USB core; lots of those available from core code firms in India), at least now they have control over their destiny. And given Schiit having a wide range of cost-conscious DACs with USB input, it sure makes sense. A $3 PIC is a big savings versus a $13 XMOS when you are talking thousands of units!