Microchip Tech Announces 30 New 16-bit MCUs & DSCs
Microchip Technology Inc. announced 30 new 28- and 44-pin 16-bit devices for embedded system designers requiring what the company describes as increased memory or performance, or enhanced peripherals, while obtaining the cost and size savings associated with lower pin count devices. This brings the total 16-bit Microcontrollers and Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs) offered by Microchip to well over 100 distinct devices. Additionally, Microchip claims that it now offers the industry’s largest DSC portfolio, enabling optimum system costs for a broad range of embedded applications that require high performance or DSP functionality.
The products are the 10 PIC24H Family 40 MIPS 16-bit microcontrollers, 10 dsPIC33 Family General Purpose DSCs and 10 dsPIC33 Motor Control and Power Conversion Family DSCs. These 28- and 44-pin devices offer 32-, 64- or 128 Kbytes of programmable Flash memory; up to 2 Kbytes of dual-port RAM; 4 to 16 Kbytes of SRAM including DMA; two on-chip comparators; a user-selectable 10-bit (4 S&H) or 12-bit (1 S&H) Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC); a real-time clock and calendar. Standard serial peripherals include two SPIs, two UARTs and one I²C™ module.
Selected DSCs include a new 16-bit peripheral for Microchip’s dual-channel, 16-bit audio Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC). Some devices also offer an on-chip CAN 2.0B module and a CODEC interface supporting the I²S and AC’97 protocols.
All three families are offered in packages as small as 6 x 6mm, which is said to be an industry first for high-performance 16-bit products with 128 Kbytes of Flash memory. All devices also operate at up to 40 MIPS, making the PIC24H the industry’s highest performing 16-bit MCU. Finally, all family members are offered in the industrial (-40 to +85°C) and extended (-40 to +125°C) temperature ranges.
The devices also feature a Parallel Master Port for rapid parallel communication with off-chip resources, such as displays, communication peripherals or memory. The on-chip Peripheral Pin Select (PPS) feature permits digital peripherals to be remapped to other pins to achieve layout efficiency or access to pin-multiplexed peripherals.
The dsPIC33F Motor Control and Power Conversion DSCs add a powerful 6-channel PWM, plus a similarly featured 2-channel PWM with a separate timebase for power factor correction or for induction-cooking applications. This family also includes two quadrature encoder interfaces for sensor-based motor control applications.
To further enable fast and efficient development cycles, these new 16-bit families continue Microchip’s seamless migration methodology by making devices pin- and instruction-set compatible (DSCs add DSP instructions). Common peripherals are also compatible, and Microchip’s universal MPLAB® Integrated Development Environment (IDE) platform supports the entire 8-, 16-, and 32-bit spectrum of Microchip’s embedded controllers.
