8-bit Microcontrollers Combine High Integration, Low Power
Microchip Technology Inc. announced the expansion of its 8-bit eXtreme low Power (XLP) Enhanced Midrange Core PIC® microcontrollers (MCUs), with the new PIC16F1512/13 devices. These new 28-pin MCUs offer a combination of advanced digital and analog peripherals, along with XLP for the extended battery life that many applications require. These features make the general-purpose PIC16F1512/13 MCUs ideal for a broad range of applications in the appliance, medical, consumer and automotive markets, among many others. Along with industry-leading active current down to 30 µA/MHz and sleep current down to 20 nA, these MCUs integrate a 17x10-bit ADC, EUSART, I2C™/SPI, 2x Capture Compare PWMs, 7 KB Flash and 256B RAM.
Compared to other members of the PIC16F151X family, these two new devices deliver increased analog capability, including a 10-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) with hardware Capacitive Voltage Divider (CVD) support for mTouch™ capacitive touch sensing implementation. The additional control logic enables automated touch sampling, which reduces software size and lowers CPU usage. It also provides an automatic control of guard-ring drive and a programmable sample-and-hold capacitance to better match larger touch or proximity sensors.
The PIC16F1512/13 MCUs are supported by Microchip's full suite of standard development tools, including the free MPLAB® X Integrated Development Environment (IDE), the MPLAB PM3 Universal Device Programmer (part # DV007004, $895.00), and the PICkit™ 3 (part # PG164130, $44.95) and MPLAB ICD 3 (part # DV164035, $189.99) debuggers/programmers. The PIC16F15XX MCUs are also supported by Microchip's F1 Evaluation tools, including the F1 Evaluation Platform (part # DM164130-1, $39.99) and the F1 Evaluation Kit, which includes the PICkit 3 (part #DV164132, $69.99). Additionally, the MPLAB XC8 Compiler for 8-bit PIC MCUs is available.
The PIC16F1512 and PIC16F1513 MCUs are both available for sampling and volume production in 28-pin SSOP, SOIC, SPDIP and 4 x 4 x 0.5 mm UQFN packages. Pricing starts at $0.58 each in high-volume quantities.