Microchip announces the availability of its new PIC24 “GA7” family of microcontrollers. These PIC24 devices are the lowest-cost 16-bit microcontrollers with 256 KB of Flash memory currently available The PIC24 “GA7” family allows developers to reduce power consumption, cost, and footprint. The devices offer low-power modes, including several standby modes with current draws as low as 190 nA, to significantly decrease power consumption and extend battery life in portable applications at a much lower cost than previous solutions. The new devices also offer up to 256 KB of Flash memory and 16 KB of RAM, and are available in 28-, 44-, and 48-pin packages, some as small as 4x4 mm.
The PIC24 “GA7” family of products supports Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) such as Configurable Logic Cells (CLCs), Multi-output Capture Compare Pulse Width Modulation (MCCP) modules, and Direct Memory Access (DMA), allowing developers to perform tasks in hardware, thus freeing the CPU from other tasks and allowing it to remain idle. The new microcontrollers also feature a powerful set of peripherals, including a 12-bit, 200 ksps A/D converter, up to seven timers, and two Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitters (UARTs).
The new PIC24 “GA7” family is supported by the Explorer 16/32 development board ecosystem (DM240001-2) and the new PIC24FJ256GA705 pluggable module (MA240039), which connects to the Explorer 16/32 board for easier evaluation and development. Designers can accelerate development thanks to the “GA7” family’s compatibility with familiar Microchip software development platforms, such as the MPLAB® Code Configurator (MCC), the MPLAB X IDE integrated development environment, and the XC16 compiler.
The PIC24 “GA7” devices also support the cloud-based MPLAB Xpress integrated development environment, an online development environment that includes many of the familiar features of the MPLAB X IDE. MPLAB Xpress incorporates the latest version of the MPLAB Code Configurator, which allows users to automatically generate initialization and application C code using a graphical interface and pin map. The MPLAB Xpress IDE is free and accessible from any internet-connected computer anywhere in the world.
The PIC24 “GA7” family is supplied in versions with 64KB, 128KB and 256KB of Flash and 28, 44 and 48 pin packages.
