Microchip plans flash MCU barrage

Electronic News, August 18, 1997 by Jim DeTar

Chandler, Ariz.--Microchip Technology today will unveil a roadmap for 20 future PICmicro 8-bit RISC microcontrollers incorporating flash memory that will be rolled out over the next 18 months, likely giving Microchip bragging rights to having the industry's largest microcontroller with flash portfolio.

Commenting on Microchip's 8-bit MCU thrust, Steve Sanghi, Microchip's president and CEO, said, "Microchip is unveiling this extensive product roadmap to ensure that embedded control engineers can design with confidence knowing the PICmicro family delivers the flash memory performance required for future market trends at competitive prices."

The 20 new devices feature 512 to 8K words of enhanced flash program memory and 36 to 368 bytes of data SRAM with 16 to 256 bytes of data EEPROM. Available in 8- to 40-pin configurations, these devices will provide various feature sets of 10-bit, 12-channel analog-to-digital converters; capture, compare and pulse-width modulation; and I2C, SPI and USART communications capability. Pricing will range from $2.70 to $8.80 each in 1,000-unit lots.

In an interview, David Yeskey, Microchip director of marketing for the Standard Microcontroller and ASSP Division, outlined the company's 1997-98 flash MCU roadmap.

"The devices will offer the industry's highest endurance performance rating--1 million erase/write cycles according to statistics from Integrated Circuit Engineering (ICE market research firm)," Mr. Yeskey said. "They will also feature the industry's lowest flash MCU operating voltage at 2.0 volts, as well as in-circuit serial programming (with 2 I/Os available). With the addition of these 20 devices, we will have the industry's largest flash MCU portfolio."

Microchip shipped approximately 102 million flash MCUs in 1995 and 122 million in 1996, up from just 68 million shipped in 1994. The company last week said it recently shipped its 10 millionth flash MCU, and it also noted that it has shipped its 100,000th development system for PICmicro, 8-bit RISC MCUs.

Among the peripherals that will be available on the new devices: nine 10-bit, 12-channel ADS, 14 capture, compare, PWMs up to 80 MHz, and 15 I2C/SPI/USARTs.

When asked whether the new devices will obsolete any existing parts, Mr. Yeskey noted that "We will let the market determine that. In a year to 18 months we will get a signal from the market." Mr Yeskey said to expect the first parts to sample in Q4, and the first volume shipments two- to three months after that.