In the old days, companies would mail datasheets and databooks to just about anyone who asked. The web has done away with the need for most of that, and many vendors seem to have taken the money they saved on postage and used it to make their sample program more accessible.



The way "free samples" work is that the manufacturer will happily send you several samples of a part, in the hopes that you'll try them out and be so impressed that you'll used them in a project that nets them sales of millions of units. Or (if you're a student) that they'll win some loyalty and "mindshare" when you get out into the real world and be more likely to use their microcontrollers than someone else's. Or that you'll write some magazine or web article that will call attention to their products. It's a marketing expense, and it's probably cheaper than many marketing expenses...



Microchip, Freescale, and TI all have very liberal sample policies. Look up a part on their website, and it's likely to have a "sample" button somewhere on the page; send them some info and in a week or so you're likely to have chips in hand. Other vendors are harder; you may have to talk to a representative. Vendors have a weak spot (as they should) for students; you might think that a sample request from a "my-u.edu" email address carries less weight than one from "nonexistantcompany.com", but that's not necessarilly true.



Ethics of Free Sampling

I suppose there are ethics to requesting free samples. Here are some of my personal rules:1) NEVER resell samples. I see lots of eBay listings for chips in quantities that match the max sample quantities of some vendors. It pisses me off. (Of course, this COULD be another "sample channel" officially endorsed by the vendor. But it doesn't look that way.)2) Don't lie more than necessary. I think making up a company name is fine, but inventing 10000 fellow employees and a product that will sell 10k/year of a chip is over the line. (This has been especially interesting as I've transitions from student to engineer at unknown company to engineer at extemely well-known company. These days If I ask for a sample, I'm likely to get a phone call from an enthusiastic salesperson hoping for a win in our next big product, and I usually explain that no, the best they can hope for from me is to get inserted into some odd piece of custom lab gear.)3) Don't be greedy. Some vendors limit you to so many samples per month, or per order. That doesn't mean you should submit new sample orders every month, or order the maximum number of samples allowed. (OTOH, be aware that for many of the chips we're talking about, the order processing and shipping costs more than the chips themselves...)4) Spread Good Publicity. If you pubish a project that used a sample, be sure to say nice things about their product. If you can't find something nice to say about a chip you sampled, you probably shouldn't say anything at all. ("Don't look a gift horse in the mouth"?)