Microchip announces the expansion of its low-power PIC® microcontroller lineup. Features of the new PIC24F “GB6” family include up to 1 MB of Flash memory with Error Correction Code (ECC) and 32 KB of RAMThis makes it the first 16-bit microcontroller in Microchip's catalog to offer such a large memory capacity. These devices, which also incorporate dual-partition flash memory with instant-upgrade capability, can handle two independent software applications, allowing simultaneous programming of one partition while the application code of the other is running. This powerful combination of features makes the PIC24F “GB6” family ideal for industrial, computing, medical/fitness, and portable applications that demand long battery life, as well as data transfer and storage without the need for external memory. These applications include electricity meters, climate control systems, fingerprint readers, and gaming.
The PIC24F “GB6” family of microcontrollers has an active current consumption of only 190 µA/MHz and 3.2 µA in sleep mode. Thanks to their ability to perform firmware updates wirelessly, designers can offer a cost-effective, reliable, and secure method for updating their applications.
The powerful set of peripherals for these devices consists of a
200 ksps, 24-channel, 12-bit A/D converter; up to 12 timers; six UARTs; and USB-OTG for operation as a USB device or host. The family also integrates Microchip's Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) that operate independently of the CPU; these include a Configurable Logic Cell (CLC) for real-time logic control and Direct Memory Access (DMA), which enables faster processing and reduces power consumption.
The PIC24F “GB6” family is supported by Microchip’s premium standard development toolset and the new PIC24FJ1024GB610 pluggable module (MA240023), priced at $25.00. This module is also available for use with the Explorer 16 development board (DM240001), priced at $129.99.
The different versions of the PIC24F devices are supplied in 64, 100 and 121 pin packages and integrate between 128KB and 1MB of Flash memory.
