Microchip introduces PIC24F microcontroller with integrated low power animation display driver

     Microchip Technology announced the introduction of a new line of PIC Ultra-low Power (XLP) microcontrollers that make it easy for system developers to add a range of innovative features when designing battery-powered and other power-sensitive products with or without LCD displays. The new PIC24F GU and GL series of microcontrollers integrate 14 kern-independent low-power peripherals (CIPs) that operate without a central processing unit (CPU), including a CIP called an autonomous animated LCD.

     Most display applications involve some common animations, such as periodically alternating the display and flashing pixels to indicate actions. By using an integrated LCD driver with autonomous animation, developers can take most of the work out of these simple animation routines from the CPU, even in snooze, idle, or sleep mode, for optimal energy savings. To help quickly design such display interfaces, the new family of microcontrollers is supported by the MPLAB® Code Configurator (MCC). A graphical programming environment with an LCD display designer helps eliminate tedious and time-consuming pin and segment mapping tasks.

     Joe Thomsen, vice president of Microchip's MCU16 business unit, said: "The newly introduced PIC family of microcontrollers adds new hardware capabilities that improve low-power performance, code protection and reliable operation for applications in multiple market segments. "This scalable family of devices can be used in a wide range of scenarios, from cloud-connected low-power iot nodes and sensor systems to automotive, consumer and industrial automation applications, helping developers easily add display, robustness and security to their designs."

     The new family of microcontrollers also easily improves the security of applications, whether connected to the Internet or stand-alone systems. Microchip's CodeGuard™ secure flash protection features divide memory into boot and universal segments to enforce memory access restrictions. Flash memory can be configured to be one-time programmable (OTP) via Microchip's In-Circuit Serial Programming™ (ICSP) write restriction feature, thus prohibiting any further modification via an external programmer/debugger.

     In addition, security can be further enhanced using Microchip's CryptoAuthentication™ device as a companion chip to increase secure remote updates and pre-configure cloud services. Finally, this family of microcontrollers is also supported by CryptoAuthLib, 16-bit bootstrappers, many application libraries in USB and MCC, which can significantly reduce development time and complexity.

     The PIC24F GU and GL series microcontrollers integrate hardware safety features through flash error correction code (ECC), program Monitoring timer (DMT), Window Watchdog timer (WWDT), fail-safe clock monitor (FSCM), configurable high and low voltage detection (HLVD) and cyclic redundancy check (CRC). Reliable operation in harsh environments.

     The new SCM family is capable of operating in harsh environments and is ideal for automotive, industrial and consumer applications. They operate at temperatures up to 125 °C, comply with AEC Q100 Class 1 standards for automotive, and have a diagnostic library that complies with IEC 60730 (Household appliances) Class B safety standards.