TI 1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller
Shares rank 22 of 28 microcontrollers by recommenders
People recommend this tiny, economical microcontroller for its speed, many usable pins and enough memory for small projects like audio sampling. Its 1KB of RAM is the main limit.
People recommend this tiny, economical microcontroller for its speed, many usable pins and enough memory for small projects like audio sampling. Its 1KB of RAM is the main limit.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast with plenty of memory
“It's got 16kB of flash and 1kB of RAM, that's plenty.”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller” “it's really fast, and it's got masses of memory”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Very tight 1KB of SRAM
“you suffer from limited RAM a lot; with 16bit samples at 48kHz the thing has 10ms of audio buffer”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller” “It's a bit low on RAM, otherwise it's similar to a game boy advance.”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller” “This specific SKU has serious limitations due to the SRAM”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller” - Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “1.38 Millimeter Microcontroller”
Other microcontrollers people recommend
The four most recommended other microcontrollers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESP32 | 190 | 35 | 84% | 12 | 5 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Arduino boards | 81 | 73 | 53% | 12 | 16 yrs7 owners | — |
| Raspberry Pi Pico | 72 | 16 | 82% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Raspberry Pi RP2350 | 47 | 13 | 78% | 11 | — | Approved |
| TI 1.38 Millimeter MicrocontrollerThis page | 6 | 3 | 67% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
All 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“This is still a 12-bit ADC strapped onto a 8-pin chip. It's useful for something but not that whole list.”
“this part has GPIOs equal to the total number of pins minus two. Economical is the word that comes to mind.”
“It's got 16kB of flash and 1kB of RAM, that's plenty.”
“This specific SKU has serious limitations due to the SRAM”
“I have enough space to record analog audio samples and perform a fourier transform over the samples”
“they only just took the 1.38mm^2 package out of pre-production”
“The 1KB of SRAM is admittedly very tight”
“you suffer from limited RAM a lot; with 16bit samples at 48kHz the thing has 10ms of audio buffer”
“It's a bit low on RAM, otherwise it's similar to a game boy advance.”
“it's really fast, and it's got masses of memory”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.