Microchip Technology announced eight members of the PIC24F 16-bit microcontroller family, which extend the line into smaller 28- and 44-pin packages with 16 to 64 Kbytes of Flash program memory and up to 8 Kbytes of RAM. The PIC24FJ64GA004 family allows the flexible use of all onboard peripherals, by enabling designers to map them to the pin they desire through the "peripheral pin select" pin-mapping function.
The family is designed to meet a wide range of design engineering needs across a broad spectrum of industries. Specific application examples include consumer (security systems, heating control, audio equipment); automotive (body control, steering systems); instrumentation/measurement (scales, medical instruments and monitoring); industrial (building monitor-and-control systems, security/access systems, sensors).
In addition to peripheral pin select, this PIC24F family features two independent channels of I2C, UART and SPI communications. These channels allow the microcontrollers to communicate to a number of devices over multiple protocols. Additionally, the family is designed for transition to other members in the PIC24F family and for migration to other families in Microchip's 16-bit portfolio, including the PIC24H and dsPIC33 families, through code compatibility. This compatibility enables the migration from a 16 MIPS PIC24F microcontroller to a 40 MIPS dsPIC33 digital signal controller.
All eight members of the family are supported by MPLAB Integrated Development Environment with its visual device initializer component, which graphically assists designers in mapping pins and initializing code for the on-chip peripheral pin select pin-mapping function. The MPLAB C30 C compiler provides code densities, along with math and peripheral libraries. For emulation and debugging, the MPLAB REAL ICE and the MPLAB ICD 2 tool are offered.
