Cover story
8-bit microcontrollers are smarter, safer and stronger than ever before
By Ross Satchell, Microchip Technology E
ight-bit MCUs have remained the primary go-to microcontrollers in growing markets, offering exciting new capabilities
and features. Our 8-bit MCUs are leading the industry in innovation, making them smarter, stronger, safer and more easier to use than ever.
Eight-bit MCUs Not only are 8-bit MCUs useful for your design process, but they are also more popular than ever as they are being applied in the industrial, automotive, medical and consumer goods industries. These adaptable MCUs have remained a primary contender within expanding industries and prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks. 8-bit MCUs remain an integral part of design portfolios because they continue to offer exciting new capabilities and features. As we have witnessed
significant changes in applications development, our PIC and AVR microcontrollers have expanded their wide array of Core Independent
Peripherals (CIPs) and on-chip analogue features to meet the demands of the growing embedded markets. As a result of Microchip’s innovation during this time, we have seen an increase in demand for 8-bit MCUs. These versatile microcontrollers feature heavily in household appliances, automotive and industrial applications. Some machine learning is also possible on 8-bit MCUs, something that was previously only possible with 32-bit MCUs. We are leading the industry in 8-bit innovation.
Smarter than ever Alongside our strong range of digital peripherals, we’re expanding our range of analogue peripherals while making them easier to interconnect. This simplifies your project while reducing the Bill of Materials (BOM) cost. To reduce development time, we offer MCC Melody (MPLAB Unified Code Configurator), which enables you to focus on your application code. This all means you can get your product to market in less time. We also have improved
06 November 2022
www.electronicsworld.co.uk
low-power operation and the ability to respond to system changes in real time.
These analogue peripherals can be configured like any other peripheral; they also can be dynamically reconfigured during runtime, something that discrete analogue simply cannot do. They are interconnectable with other peripherals using MCC Melody.
Stronger than ever Many of these parts go into applications in challenging industries. Our 8-bit MCUs are made to operate in harsh environments. You can choose to reduce power consumption by lowering the operating voltage, or if your application is operating in an environment with significant electrical noise, you can use a higher operating voltage to pull all of the signals out of the noise.
Safer than ever Functional safety-ready MCUs were traditionally only used in automotive applications and it was
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