I don't think so.
Note that now they have three lines of '51s - the "traditional", where they abandoned the old (presumably intel-originated) core in favour of a new 6-clocker, unfortunately full of bugs, the "LP" singleclockers, which have yet to come into wider use; and the ex-Temic line which are the high-end line (feature-wise) now.

This - together with the fourth AVR-group in Norway, which is known to be of academic origin - clearly indicates, that the 8-bit business of Atmel has to be treated as if they would be several separate companies; and some of them simply perform better than the others.

It's just a pity (and not only for Atmel but also for their - rather wide than well-funded - users base) that those "internal companies" don't cooperate more closely.



I don't think this either.

There is a new "news by e-mail" service, which is operated from the Norway branch both for AVRs and '51s. I think the bosses there realised that it would be a shame to loose the '51 market (I suspect at least part of those who'd leave '51s will mostly go for something more powerful, such as the simpler ARM-based mcus, where the competition is very touch, rather than stay at the 8-bit AVRs).

Note also that they made it to revision R of the chip within about two years - on one hand it is sort of a shame, on the other it means a remarkable perseverance and sounds like a sort of a commitment to get the chip into shape finally.

JW