Microchip offers tiny Ethernet-enabled MCU

NewsSouth-East European INDUSTRIAL Мarket - issue 4/2006

Automation of equipment and the automated monitoring and control of equipment has long been a goal in many industries. But providing connectivity to the smallest microcontrollers has proven challenging in the past because the simpler devices did not have enough memory onboard to make it possible to include Ethernet and Internet Protocol software stacks. Microchip has announced a family of 8-bit microcontrollers with onboard Ethernet, bringing Internet connectivity to less complex embedded devices. The approach cuts the costs for embedded designers because they only need one chip instead of two and reduces the footprint of the solution by 68 per cent. The Ethernet/microcontroller combination’s end applications can be used to save money, too. By integrating a 10BASE-T Ethernet controller onto a 10 MIPS PIC18 microcontroller with up to 128 Kbytes of Flash program memory, Microchip said it is providing embedded systems designers with a single-chip remote-communication solution for a wide range of applications.

Microchip’s nine-member family of 8-bit microcontrollers with integrated Ethernet are available now for general sampling.




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