Group Actions
Engagement
  • Author Author: dsPIC_Microchip
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 4596 views
  • Likes 5 likes
  • Comments 8 comments
Related
Recommended

Microchip Technology Unveils 32-bit MCU Family with Integrated High-Performance Analog Peripherals

dsPIC_Microchip

To address the increasing demand for high-performance, math-intensive applications in a wide range of industries, Microchip Technology (Nasdaq: MCHP) has released the PIC32A family of MCUs. Enhancing the company’s already robust 32-bit MCU portfolio, PIC32A MCUs are designed to be cost-efficient, high-performance solutions for general-purpose applications across automotive, industrial, consumer, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and medical markets.

Designed to significantly reduce the need for external components, the 200 MHz 32-bit PIC32A family features integrated high-speed analog peripherals, up to 40 Msps 12-bit ADCs, high-speed 5 ns comparators and 100 MHz Gain Bandwidth Product (GBWP) op amps for intelligent edge sensing. These features and a high-performance CPU allow for multiple functions to be performed on a single MCU, optimizing both system and bill of material costs.

Link to Press Release: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/about/news-releases/products/microchip-technology-unveils-32-bit-mcu-family-with-integrated

  • in reply to dsPIC_Microchip

    There are a range of applications where this part will be a great fit, likely the the best fit in fact. However I hope the family gets extended in the future to include more RAM, because there is a nice range of applications for such a part that no MCUs are currently addressing. One of the many areas would be multi-channel high-speed data acquisition systems. We  are currently tackling an application where the market size is in the millions of systems, but have had to solve it in other ways.

  • in reply to dsPIC_Microchip

    Agreed, but with the number of ADC channels you have it would be very challenging to process that many analog signals with the limited amount of buffer space.

  • in reply to DAB

    Thanks for the comments, the PIC32A will have its optimal use toward single- or multi-sensing type applications where data needs to processed in real-time for signals that are not in the high end frequency ranges, like say for a video signal (e.g. analog sensors, capacitive sensors for touch, audio signals, etc.). Signal peaks, averages, max values, and other attributes can be detected and processed in real-time. the ADC is capable of sampling at the specified value when triggering in bursts to sample a signal at periods where there might be jitter requiring the need for acquisition of more samples. In general, if you pull a high volume of data and immediately process it, you should be ok with the existing RAM size for these types of applications.

  • I agree with DougW, the lack of memory would severely affect where you would use this chip.

    As long as you have an application where you pull in a lot of data and immediately process it to extract meta data, you are probably ok.

  • in reply to dougw

    dougw, 

    To answer your specific question about data buffering, please reference page 24 of the family datasheet which contains the family block diagram. Depending on the size of the data, The X RAM and Y RAM can be used to route in/out the analog data. Also please refer to page 629 for reference to the DMA.

    image

    image