Cash for Clunkers, Embedded Style

Take the Cash for Clunkers program, for example. The federal government's stimulus program that gave buyers up to $4,500 towards a new, more environmentally-friendly vehicle when they traded-in their old gas guzzling cars or trucks resulted in nearly 700,000 clunkers taken off the roads, with rebate applications worth $2.877 billion submitted and paid for from the $3 billion provided by Congress.

The success of "Clunkers" was not lost on Microchip. Recognizing a winning concept when they see one, the company has come up with its own'"Cash for Clunkers" development-tool exchange program for embedded designers.

Here's how it works:

Embedded designers can exchange selected tools from Microchip's competitors for a rebate as high as 30%—up to a $120 savings—on select PIC Microcontroller, memory and analog development tools (including MPLAB Starter Kits for PIC24F and PIC24H, the PIC 32 Starter Kit, MPLAB Starter Kit for Memory Products, the PicKit 3 Debug Express and three customized bundles).

"After all," the company noted in announcing the program, "Uncle Sam isn't offering the electronics industry any bailouts; so Microchip thought it would stimulate better designs by giving embedded engineers an attractive incentive to trade up for more sleek and modern development tools."

Interested? You'd better act fast—the program ends on October 30, 2009.' For more information go to http://www.microchip.com/get/400714327546296 or, if you are at ESC Boston 2009, visit Microchip at booth 201.