Low-cost USB microcontrollers

23 July 2008 DSP, Micros & Memory

Microchip has released a new family of 8-bit PIC microcontrollers for USB applications.

The PIC18F13K50 and PIC18F14K50 are the company's lowest-cost USB microcontrollers and are supported by Microchip's free USB software stack and free MPLAB IDE, which provides a consistent development platform across all PIC microcontrollers.

More engineers are taking advantage of USB as a standardised interface, in combination with other serial-interface protocols. The PIC18F1XK50 micro-controllers include I²C, SPI and USART interfaces, alongside USB 2.0, enabling them to transfer data between USB and other embedded serial networks. In addition, they provide a 10-bit, 9-channel analog-to-digital converter and dual comparators with S/R Latch, giving users the capability to process a variety of inputs - from temperature and humidity to capacitive touch-sensing.

Additional features include a USB host-detection capability, where the MCU can be configured to enter sleep or any other power-managed mode when a USB connection is not present. The new MCUs can also be internally or externally clocked with seamless on-the-fly switching, bringing further power saving options. With an operating voltage range of 1,8-5,5 V, they are designed for use with a wide variety of operating environments and power supplies, including batteries, USB interfaces or other power sources.

The PIC18F13K50 has 8 KB Flash and 512 Bytes of RAM memory, and the PIC18F14K50 has 16 KB Flash and 768 Bytes of RAM. Both devices have 256 Bytes of EEPROM for non-volatile data storage.

Microchip also announced two new development kits, to help engineers get started using the PIC18FK50 in their designs.

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