You make good sense when you support the JTAG features. However, when you have three days in which to complete a project, you really can't build a PCB for those fine-pitch parts. Now, some of the younger guys can solder to pins spaced at half-a-millimeter, but, quite frankly, I have to put on a special pair of glasses when I have to do that, and it's slow going. If somebody comes to me on Friday saying they have to have something on Tuesday, I can't offer them that as a solution.

If I have a board with the controller of choice on it, well, that's great, but it seldom happens, so I have to build something with technology that's on hand.

Now, I have those "popular" crystals on hand. I also have a variety of others from which nearly any common communication rate can be derived. Nonetheless I don't like to limit the rate at which my controller operates just because both its serial channels get their timing from the same crystal that determines the rate at which the controller runs. If I can mitigate that limitation by using T2, then I probably will do so, and figure out another way to handle the timer requirement. If that doesn't work out, I can always consider another controller, perhaps one that doesn't tie the async comms rate to the internal oscillator, or perhaps one that uses a clock that works out better. It's just another choice.

RE