8-Bit OTP Microcontroller Carries On-Chip Regulation

Substantial reductions in overall system cost and power requirements are claimed through use of the PIC16HV540 microcontroller. The 8-bit, one-time-programmable device is said to be the world's first such component with an on-chip voltage regulator and high-voltage I/O. The chip has eight such I/O ports whose inputs will accept up to 15V. The I/Os can drive outputs from rail-to-rail up to 15V to interface directly with sensors or relays.With a 3V and 5V on-chip regulator, the MCU eliminates costly low-current regulators in many applications powered from 9V or 12V batteries or unregulated 6V, 9V or 12V ac adapters. Also on the IC are 512 x 12 words of OTP EPROM program storage and 25 x 8 bytes of user data RAM. The chip features 33 single-word instructions, single-cycle operation at 20 MHz, a four-level hardware stack, brownout protection, timers, counters, and more.