Microchip Technology expands product offerings with cost-effective 14-pin flash Picmicro microcontroller.

Microchip Technology Inc. (Nasdaq:MCHP) expanded its cost-competitive, low pin-count PICmicro Flash microcontroller offerings with a family of 14-pin devices that feature an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), internal oscillator, comparator and quick start-up. Available in volume production today, the PIC16F630 and PIC16F676 devices feature Microchip's PMOS Electrically Erasable Cell (PEEC) process technology, which provides best-in-class erase/write endurance, retention, and disturb reliability for both program and on-chip data EEPROM memory.

The 14-pin packaging options available are similar in size to 8-pin devices and are considerably smaller than 18-pin devices without losing a significant number of I/O pins. "Microchip is a recognized leader in field-programmable 8-pin devices," said Edward Dias, product marketing manager for Microchip Technology. "Designers who select 8-pin microcontrollers sometimes need just one more pin and we are giving our customers additional flexibility by introducing these 14-pin microcontrollers."

With both devices in production today, this microcontroller family offers the flexibility of reprogrammable Flash memory in a small footprint package supported by a world-class development tool suite. The PIC16F630 and PIC16F676 microcontrollers are code-compatible with Microchip's current PIC12F629 and PIC12F675 8-pin Flash devices, allowing designers to re-use software and hardware in existing platforms, thus lowering overall development costs and time-to-market concerns.

The PIC16F630 and PIC16F676 devices offer a typical standby current of 100 nanoamps at 2.0 volts and a wide operating voltage range from 2V to 5.5V. A quick start-up of 2 microseconds and the ability to run a Timer from an external crystal while in SLEEP mode make the devices ideal for applications requiring low power operation. Additionally, the peripheral features can be enabled by individual on/off controls to conserve power.

The PIC16F630 and PIC16F676 devices offer 1792 Kbytes of Flash program memory, 64 bytes of RAM memory, and 128 bytes of EEPROM memory with 1 million erase/write cycles. The PIC16F676 features a 10-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with 8 channels that can use either VDD or an external voltage reference. Additional peripherals available on both devices include a precision internal oscillator that is +/-2 percent stable over a wide temperature and voltage range, a comparator with an internal voltage reference with 32 selectable voltage levels and Brownout Reset (BOR).

Featuring In-Circuit Serial Programming (ICSP), Microchip's PICmicro Flash devices allow the microcontrollers to be programmed after being placed in a circuit board. This offers tremendous flexibility, reduces development time and manufacturing cycles and improves time to market. ICSP enables reduced cost of field upgrades, system calibration during manufacturing and the addition of unique identification codes to the system and calibration of system in the field.

For development, Microchip offers the MPLAB In-Circuit Debugger (ICD2) development tool. The MPLAB ICD2 is a powerful, low-cost run-time tool that offers cost-effective in-circuit Flash programming and debugging from the graphical user interface of the MPLAB Integrated Development Environment (IDE) tool. This enables a designer to develop and debug source code by watching variables, single-stepping and setting break points. Running at full speed enables testing hardware in real-time.

The small package size, low cost and ADC channels make the devices ideal for small appliances, toys, sense and measurement applications or high-end automobile systems.

Available today in 14-pin TSSOP, PDIP and SOIC packages, pricing in high volume is $0.79 cents each for the PIC16F630 and $0.91 cents each for the PIC16F676.