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Microchip Introduces New Low-Power PIC24 "GA7" Microcontroller Family

New Devices feature a sleep mode down to 190nA and are ideal for IoT Sensor Nodes

The new PIC24 “GA7” family of microcontrollers (MCU) is now available from Microchip. As the lowest-cost 256 KB Flash memory 16-bit MCUs available today, these PIC24 devices enable extremely cost-effective designs for Internet of Things (IoT) sensor nodes, portable medical devices and industrial control applications.

The PIC24 “GA7” family enables developers to cut power consumption, cost and space. The devices offer low-power modes including multiple sleep modes, down to 190 nA, to greatly decrease power consumption for extended battery life in portable applications at a fraction of the cost of previous solutions. The new devices also offer up to 256 KB Flash and 16 KB RAM and are available in 28, 44 and 48 pin count package options, some as small as 4 x 4mm.

“Designers are demanding more program memory in smaller pin count packages. With the PIC24 ‘GA7’ family, Microchip offers a cost-effective solution packing 256 KB Flash into small 4 x 4 mm packages,” said Joe Thomsen, Vice President of Microchip’s MCU16 Division. “This PIC24 family also offers various power-down modes for power-sensitive and handheld applications.”

Development Support
The new PIC24 “GA7” family is supported by the Explorer 16/32 Development Board ecosystem as well as the new PIC24FJ256GA705 Plug-In Module which plugs into the Explorer 16/32 Board for easy evaluation and development. Speed up development by leveraging the “GA7” family’s compatibility with Microchip’s established software development platforms including MPLAB® Code Configurator (MCC), MPLAB X IDE and XC16 Compiler.

The PIC24 “GA7” devices are also supported by Microchip’s MPLAB Xpress Cloud-Based IDE, which is an online development environment containing the most popular features of MPLAB X IDE. MPLAB Xpress incorporates the latest version of MPLAB Code Configurator, which enables users to automatically generate initialization and application C code using a graphical interface and pin map.

The company's Web site address is www.microchip.com
[Reprinted with kind permission from Microchip Corporation - Release Date, 12th December, 2016]