Microchip’s new cost-effective low power PIC®MCUs extend battery life and eliminate external memory via 1 MB of dual-partition flash

PIC24F “GB6″microcontroller family also features live update capability for always on industrial, computer, medical/fitness and portable applications

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP solutions, today announced the expansion of its low power PIC^®microcontroller (MCU) portfolio. Features of the new PIC24F “GB6” familyincludeup to 1 MB of flash memory with Error Correction Code (ECC) and 32KB of RAM, making it the first 16-bit MCU in Microchip’s portfolio to offer such a large memory size. Also featuring dual-partition flash with live update capability, these devices can hold two independent software applications, permitting the simultaneous programming of one partition while executing application code from the other.This powerful combination of featuresmakes the PIC24F “GB6” family ideal for industrial, computer, medical/fitness and portable applications that require a long battery life, data transfer and storage without the need for external memory. Such applications include electricity metering, HVAC control, fingerprint scanners and gaming.

 “Large on-chip memory is always desirable, and with 1MB of Flash, our customers can eliminate external memory to lower system cost. This family also offers dual-partition flash with live update capability, enabling execution from one part of the memory while updating your code,” said Joe Thomsen, vice president of Microchip’s MCU16 division.

MCUs in the PIC24F “GB6” family haveactive current consumption as low as 190 µA/MHz,and 3.2 µA in sleep mode. With the ability to perform over-the-air firmware updates, designers can provide a reliable, secure and cost-effectivemethod for updating their applications.

The robust peripheral set for these devices includes a 200 ksps, 24 channel, 12-bit analog-to-digitalconverter (ADC); up to 12 timers, six UARTS and a USB-OTG to act as a USB device or host. Microchip Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) that run without the CPU are also integrated into the family, including a Configurable Logic Cell (CLC)for real-time logic controland Direct Memory Access (DMA) thatenables faster throughput and lowers power consumption.

Development Support

The PIC24F “GB6” family is supported by Microchip’s standard suite of world-class development tools, and the new PIC24FJ1024GB610 Plug-In Module (part # MA240023) is available today for the Explorer 16 Development Board (part # DM240001)

Availability

All eight members of the PIC24F “GB6” microcontroller family are released for volume production, and are available within normal lead times.Product variants are available in 64-pin, 100-pin and 121-pin packages, with flash memory ranging from 128KB to 1MB. The following family table shows all the options: http://www.microchip.com/Table-112315a.

 For additional information, contact any Microchip sales representative or authorised worldwide distributor, or visit Microchip’s website at http://www.microchip.com/PIC24FGB6-112315a. To purchase products mentioned in this press release, go to microchipDIRECT or contact one of Microchip’s authorised distribution partners.