MICROSOCKETS.COM: Embedding the Network

MICROCHIP pulled the trigger on their new PIC32 family of microcontrollers today.  As we suspected, they have teamed up with MIPS to provide a single-chip 32-bit microcontroller platform aimed squarely at the ARM empire.

MICROCHIP gets an established and respected core and MIPS gets tied to an established set of peripherals, integrated toolchain, distribution network, field support team and a growing set of design partners (including Microsockets!). 

Official Particulars of the PIC32MX:

• 72MHz MIPS32 M4K core with MAC 
• 64 or 100 pin TQFP
• PIC32MX300F032H: 64-pin, 32K Flash,  8K RAM, $2.95 QTY10K
• PIC32MX360512L: 100-pin, 512K Flash, 32K RAM, $5.30 QTY10K
• Volume production Q2 2008
• C32 Compiler available now
• Explorer16 compatibility
• ICD2, RealICE, MPLAB support now

Initial Peripherals:

• 10-bit ADC, 16 channels
• 5 Timers with capture and compare
• 2 UARTS, 2 SPI, 2 I2C
• POR, BOR, LVD

Initial code examples include TCP/IP with HTTP, FTP, SMTP for the SPI-based Microchip ENC28J60 10Mbps MAC/PHY running on the Explorer 16. In addition to a $25 PIC32 PIM for the Explorer 16, a PIC32 Starter Kit is available for under $50.

Overall it’s a pretty exciting announcement that 10 years ago would have sounded totally ludicrous.  Now if I can just get MPLAB to connect to my SGI Indy.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Certified Design Partnerships, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.