However, most tasks can be handled just as well with a small 805x or a large ARM, even though a smarter choice might have been the small PIC or small 805x. Unfortunately, as the implementation prices get closer together the choices are made on a different basis than they once were. Fewer and fewer designers care whether they use 80 MB of code or 20 KB, since it's cheap enough to use an ARM that supports SDRAM and has internal cache, rather than to put in the effort to figure out how to do the job with a small 805x and internal code space. It's just a buck or two.

Quick and dirty seems to be more popular than elegant and inexpensive these days.

RE