TI has got a very strong, if somewhat ecletic, portfolio
TI has a very wide range of parts but what it does and what these parts are used for seems to pass technology journalists by. Most embedded devices don't need the kind of general purpose hardware that you'd find in a phone or PC, they need a combination of a medium performance general processor along with a lot of specialist peripherals in order to build cost effective product solutions.
These days it seems that a processor is useless unless it has several 53 bit cores running with at least a 1GHz clock combined with several gigabytes of memory. The reality is that a mid-range C2000 series TI microcontroller, the sort that's you'd use for motor or power control, is a collection of complex peripherals tied together with a rather weird architecture 16 bit processor. Most programmers who work on generic applications would not know where to start using one of these things. (TI does provide extensive documentation, training and technical support but that in itself can be intimidating.) I'd recommend everyone to have a look at their website, ti.com, to get a feel for their huge range.....and then realize that they're only one of several manufacturers in this business.
I think this may point to a weakness in our technology. Entrants to programming tend to be focused on applications, invariably mobile applications, to the neglect of the rather more prosaic business of making things out of these types of devices. These end up being imported because its so difficult to get people that either know the technologies in these parts or are willing to put in the time training to use them. We're just too focused on the 'latest and greatest' that we don't understand what really makes the money.
