05-05-2022 | Microchip Technology | Semiconductors
Microchip Technology Inc has released five new product families and over 60 new individual devices that provide embedded designers simple solutions to their most common problems.
Designers who are looking to develop innovative designs are turning to the company's new product families of PIC and AVR MCUs because of their processing power, capacity to easily communicate with other chips and analog peripherals that have been constructed to be extremely configurable with no need to make changes to the PCB. These devices combine ASIC-like capabilities with a simple development experience that expands conventional MCU capabilities and enables them to be configured as smart peripheral chips. Such as software-controlled op-amp, smart peripherals found on the PIC16F171 family, the MVIO and ADCC add value to applications that otherwise would not employ traditional MCUs.
The challenge of spanning multiple voltage domains is a common situation in systems that possess chips utilising different supply voltages (e.g., connecting a 5V MCU to a 1.8V sensor). This type of system would normally need level-shifting hardware, which raises costs. The MVIO peripheral found on its latest 8-bit MCUs, including the AVR DD family, enables a single port on the MCU to operate in a different voltage domain than the rest of the MCU, which eradicates the necessity for additional external components.
Some systems need a level of speed and response time that is challenging to accomplish with software-based processing. The CIP) available across the PIC and AVR product range can be programmed with MCC to be readily connected to form a hardware processing chain. This makes it feasible to produce custom peripherals that eradicate software processing cycle times.
"PIC and AVR microcontrollers are incredibly popular because they are designed to meet our clients' requirements for current, as well as future, applications," said Greg Robinson, vice president of marketing for Microchip's MCU8 business unit. "We have also built a robust supply chain for 8-bit PIC and AVR MCUs¬, the vast majority of which are manufactured in Microchip-owned facilities. This allows us to control the production process in ways that are not common in the industry."
The company provides a full development ecosystem of hardware and software tools, incorporating its MPLAB X and MPLAB Xpress IDEs and MCC, offering an intuitive graphical interface to generate production-ready setup and application code for 8-bit MCU-based projects.
