MCUs Extend Battery Life and Eliminate External Memory

Microchip Technology Inc. today announced the expansion of its Low Power PIC® microcontroller (MCU) portfolio. Features of the new PIC24F "GB6" family include up to 1 MB of Flash memory with Error Correction Code (ECC) and 32 KB 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 combination of features makes the PIC24F “GB6” family well-suited for industrial, computer, medical/fitness and portable applications that require a long battery life, and data transfer and storage without the need of external memory, such as electricity metering, HVAC control, fingerprint scanners and gaming.

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

MCUs in the PIC24F “GB6” family have Active 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 cost-effective, reliable and secure method for updating their applications.

The robust peripheral set for these devices includes a 200 ksps, 24 channel, 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC); up to 12 timers, six UARTS and 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 control and Direct Memory Access (DMA) that enables faster throughput and lowers power consumption.

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, $25.00) is available today for the Explorer 16 Development Board (part # DM240001, $129.99).

All eight members of the PIC24F “GB6” microcontroller family are released for volume production, and are available within normal lead times. Pricing starts at $1.74 each, in high volumes. Product variants are available in 64-pin, 100-pin and 121-pin packages, with Flash memory ranging from 128KB to 1MB.