Microchip Technology expands its line of CLB (Configurable Logic Block)-based microcontrollers. The PIC16F13276 and PIC18-Q35 families incorporate CPLD-like programmable logic and a microcontroller into a single, low-power device.
Microchip's CLB is designed to simplify multitasking by allowing users to implement logic functions in dedicated hardware rather than software. This helps reduce power consumption, provides more predictable system behavior, and improves performance compared to solutions consisting solely of a microcontroller or discrete solutions comprised of a CPLD and microcontroller. These new device families allow the CLB to be loaded automatically upon startup or reboot, enabling logic to be initialized independently of the CPU and ensuring predictable behavior, as required by functional safety, industrial, and automotive systems.
The PIC16F13276 family has 32 logic elements, while the PIC18-Q35 family has 128 logic elements, enabling engineers to implement parallel deterministic logic and embedded control on a single chip. This integrated approach can replace designs with separate CPLDs and microcontrollers, reducing the bill of materials, board footprint, cost, and overall system complexity.
“The development of our new products is not about keeping up with our competitors, but about efficiently solving real-world design challenges,” said Greg Robinson, corporate vice president of Microchip’s microcontroller business unit. “Both families feature CPLD-like functionality on an affordable, low-power microcontroller, offering engineers a simple way to add programmable logic to their designs.”.
The devices are fully compatible with existing PIC16 and PIC18-based designs, allowing customers to adopt hardware-based logic without completely redesigning their systems. Furthermore, the PDID (Programming and Debugging Interface Disable) feature adds tamper protection to safeguard designs against unauthorized access and malicious modifications.
Microchip's CLB hardware-based timing handles timing in software-based systems, and a CLB analysis tool allows designers to identify signal delays, critical connections, and potential timing risks early in the design process. Early verification of these timing issues helps shorten debugging time. Visit the website to learn more about CLB-enabled microcontrollers .
Development Tools:
Microchip’s advanced CLB Configuration tool, now available in Microsoft® Visual Studio® Code (VS Code®), helps accelerate logic development through an intuitive graphical interface. The CLB’s integrated synthesizer combines logic design and analysis capabilities with pre-fetch simulation and debugging of timing hardware, allowing developers to verify functionality, observe real-time operation, and validate timing accuracy without writing HDL code or manually configuring registers. The PIC16F13276 and PIC18-Q35 are also supported by Microchip’s powerful development ecosystem, consisting of MPLAB® X IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and MPLAB Code Configurator (MCC). The PIC18F56Q35 Curiosity Nano (EV55P36A) and PIC16F13276 Curiosity Nano (EV18Z11A) evaluation kits are cost-effective, ready-to-use hardware platforms that have all the necessary programming and debugging resources for high-speed prototyping and evaluation.
