With smartphones, autonomous vehicles and 5G wireless connectivity dominating the embedded design landscape in 2022, Microchip's PIC and 8-bit AVR microcontroller (MCU) families are gaining market share.
Over the past 50 years, the market for 8-bit MCUs has grown steadily, and Microchip currently sells one device for every human in the Western Hemisphere each year.
To support this continuing trend, Microchip Technology recently announced the launch of five new product families and more than 60 new individual devices that offer embedded designers simple solutions to their most common problems.
Designers looking to create innovative designs are turning to Microchip's new product families of PIC and AVR MCUs because of their processing power, ability to easily communicate with other chips, and analog peripherals that are built to be configurable without the need for make changes. the printed circuit board.
These devices combine ASIC-like features with a simple development experience that extends traditional MCU capabilities and allows them to be configured as smart peripheral chips. Intelligent peripherals such as the software-controlled operational amplifier found in the PIC16F171 family, multi-voltage I/O (MVIO), and analog-to-digital converter with compute (ADCC) add value to applications that would not otherwise use traditional MCUs.
The challenge of spanning multiple voltage domains is a common situation in systems that include chips that use different supply voltages (for example, connecting a 5V MCU to a 1.8V sensor). This type of system would typically require level-shifting hardware, which increases costs. The MVIO peripheral found in Microchip's latest 8-bit MCUs, including the AVR DD family, allows a single port on the MCU to operate in a different voltage domain than the rest of the MCU, which eliminates the need for additional external components.
Some systems require a level of speed and response time that is difficult to achieve with software-based processing. Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) available across the Microchip PIC and AVR product line can be programmed with the MPLAB Code Configurator (MCC) to be easily connected to form a hardware processing chain. This makes it possible to create custom peripherals that eliminate software processing cycle times.
For example, a WS2812 LED array, which requires a single time to be activated correctly, can be controlled easily by configuring a super peripheral consisting of a pulse width modulator, an SPI interface, and the configurable logic cell (CLC).
As the market for 8-bit MCU PIC and AVR devices continues to grow, Microchip continues to respond to the long-term needs of its customers by adhering to strong fundamentals in its product portfolio and support structure. PIC and AVR MCUs are easy to design, and their support network allows Microchip customers to accelerate time to revenue.
The 8-bit MCU portfolio is pin-for-pin compatible, which allows an alternative PIC or AVR MCU to be selected when more performance is needed or when a customer wants to maximize product availability while minimizing hardware requirements. redesign.
“PIC and AVR microcontrollers are incredibly popular because they are designed to meet our customers' requirements for current and future applications,” said Greg Robinson, vice president of marketing for Microchip's 8-bit MCU 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.”
Development Tools
Microchip offers a complete development ecosystem of hardware and software tools, including its MPLAB Application code for 8-bit MCU based projects.
