The dsPIC family of digital signal controllers includes twenty 16-bit flash microcontrollers. They feature DSP engines (the dsPIC core is a 16-bit modified Harvard machine), 30 MIPS non-pipelined performance, C-compiler-friendly design, and a familiar microcontroller architecture and design environment. The twenty new devices form three product families targeting motor control and power conversion, sensor, and general-purpose applications. The Motor Control and Power Conversion family features a pulse-width modulation unit and 10-bit ADC. The Sensor family targets low-cost applications requiring low pin counts and high processing capability. The General Purpose family addresses a range of high-volume applications. The dsPIC30Fxxxx devices feature 12KB to 144KB of on-chip secure flash program memory space and up to 8KB of data space. Devices are planned in 18- to 80-pin packages. The devices provide typical microcontroller peripherals including single-cycle instructions, fault-tolerant oscillator, and up to eight capture and compare functions. For communications, the dsPIC family offers combinations of RS-485-type UART, I2C, SPI, AC97, CAN, and I2S for peripheral expansion. A dedicated motor control/power conversion PWM and quadrature encoder interface is also available. The company is also offering a development tool and library packages to support the dsPIC devices, which will range from under $4 to $14 each in 5,000-unit quantities. Beta sampling is planned for the first quarter of 2002 and volume production is expected in the fourth quarter.

Microchip Technology
Chandler, AZ
(480) 792-7668
www.microchip.com