Difference between AVR and PIC microcontroller?

Your questions is too general for a specific answer.

We actually sell a guide that lists over 2300 microcontrollers. Of those, about 110 are Atmel AVR, and about 240 are Microchip PIC (including dsPIC). This covers 95-99% of the available range for each line.

There's very little *practical* difference between the two lines. Both are extensive, and cover much of the same ground in terms of I/O, processing power, power consumption, and analog, digital and communications peripherals. They are both low-to-mid range lines, putting them under ARM7, ARM9 and Blackfin processors, with pin counts ranging from 8 to 80 pins.

There are differences in the cores, but not too much that means anything in practical use.

As for others, there are at least 11 major manufacturers, with at least 24 distinctive lineups / cores. There are likely over 3000 active devices on the public market, with an unknown number of custom/private cores being sold to individual customers.

If you wanted to know the differences between specific devices, you will need to compare data sheets. Alternatively, we can provide direct comparisons for you for a (really) small fee.

- CG
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