Nexus tipped us to Microchip’s new PIC24E general purpose microcontroller:
Microchip’s PIC24E general purpose microcontroller family features the highest speed 60 MIPS core with excellent performance and code density. It offers superior ADC performance, enhanced CAN communication, easier graphic display interface through 8-bit parallel master port and up to 15 DMA channels for extensive data movement. These devices are available in various packages and with extended (125°C) temp option.
Microchip is fighting like crazy for the space between ARM and low-end 8bit microcontrollers. We really like the small 16bit PIC 24Fs like the 24FJ64GA002 in the Bus Pirate. Moving from an 8bit uC to a PIC24F was a huge upgrade for lazy developers like us. 8K (really!) of RAM is enough to run a proper SD card FAT file system without a ton of hacks. A big advantage of the 24FJ64GA002 type chips over ARM is that they tend to be much cheaper, starting around $2 in 1s, and they’re available in low pincount packages.
This new 24EP line seems to bump into ARM and PIC32 territory in speed, cost, and features. PIC32 hasn’t caught on like a wildfire, to say the least, but the 16bit line always had the price advantage. These new chips rival ARM in price, but lack the widespread support and standardized (open source!) toolchain. If we needed high-speed, DMA, etc, in a project today, we’d probably go ARM.
- 41 user-definable Timer/Counters
- – up to 9 16-bit Timers/Counters
- – 16 Input Capture
- – 16 Output Compare/PWM
That’s a killer feature if you need it though. Maybe there’s a targeted application for this chip.
Via the contact form.
$2 dollars a chip will convert my friends.
the NXP LPC1113/LPC1114 are just over 2 dollars at digikey if you buy one :)
but the specs of there 16 bitters is faster, interesting :)
Holy smokes! :-) Another reason to stick with Microchip :-D
I think there is a mistake in the specification == 41 user-definable Timer/Counters 8-(
> If we needed high-speed, DMA, etc, in a project today, we’d probably go ARM.
Interesting. What’s your reasoning for ARM in favor of PIC32?
@Markus for ARM > PIC32
Better and smarter peripherals, lot of chips providers, FREEEEE dev tools, …
The free multi-platform tool chains, and the chance to dog food our own JTAG debugger,
It continues to surprise me how a site about OPEN hardware continues to advertise for one of the most CLOSED chip makers.
I share your criticism of their closed source ways, and have taken them to task for being open source half-steppers, on the phone and in person. I included heavy handed criticism of this chip, as in, I wouldn’t use it. Microchip didn’t get their money’s worth if they paid for this placement :)
However, I like their chips and use them on a daily basis, in lots of projects at this site. I like to hear about new chips and thought this was interesting.
@Zizzle,
does Atmel provide anything open?
does Intel provide anything open?
does FTDI provide anything open?
Does Cypress provide anything open?
Does Altera, XILINX, …. provide anything open?
DOES even ARM provide anything open ? all GCC open stuff and JTAG (Open OCD) are provided by third party companies working on Compilers and dev tools or from open source groups.
Pointing out a chip is not making advertisement necessarily, it does starts good remarks, discussions and contributions from members using these components.
Intel has been pretty good with the open source community athough
not in the embedded space. See http://software.intel.com/sites/oss/.