Microchip Vs. Expressif/Rpi

[shantanu@india]

Why can't Microchip manufacture cheaper Wifi enabled modules to compete with Expressif & R-Pi Pico-WH?
I found only one module...that too without any price...
https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/pic32wm-bw1002

[Gamboa]

https://www.microchipdirect.com/product/PIC32WM-BW1002UE-I/300?utm_source=octopart&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=buynow

Regards,
Gamboa

[JonW]

Different business model. Even producing 1 variant would undermine all other products. RPI is non-profit and funded per se, so they can offer super-low-cost hardware at almost no cost.  The RP2354A/B are unreal for the price.  The Chinese side is another level: a PIC16F (yes, flash-based) with a 10-bit ADC costs less than $0.05 USD in volume for a 20-pin device, and there are multiple vendors.  Arm M0, less than $0.10

Expressif is the same: highly integrated, at a fraction of the cost, and heavily funded by the Chinese government. Many Chinese companies produce silicon at a loss, via funding.

If you look at some of the ASICS that the mainstream manufacturers build, the ARM core silicon area is a fraction of a cent vs the integration level.  It's driven by sheer volume and hidden to protect the markets.  I've worked with BCM, Intel, Maxlinear, and Qualcomm on large designs, and the cost-versus-performance they can achieve through integration is frightening.

Example: in the Satellite industry.  A chip used in DBS (Satellite TV): has 4 to 8 x 5.4Gs/s ADCs digitising 300 to 2700 MHz of bandwidth across 4 to 8 channels (Nyquist).. Then the digital decimation/interpolation/filtering engines do theor work after the analogue and Digital AGC, Tilt, engines.  Multiply this by 32 channels, feeding one or two 10 Gb/s DACS operating at 300-2700 MHz.  Basically, digitise multiple inputs across 4 x 300 to 2700 MHz, digitally filter and transpose all 32 of them, and re-create the analogue output covering the same IF bandwidth. Plus.. Integrate Diseqc, FSK, and DC-DC converters with AVS scaling and add a decent ARM core for the processing. Cost $4 per chip in volume with 28nm node.. These devices are now EOL; this was done 15 years ago. Analogue Devices sells one ADC for hundreds of dollars. 

Volume and demand