Microchip Technology Announces dsPIC33 Digital Signal Controller Family


October 10, 2005 -- Microchip Technology, Inc. today announced the dsPIC33 family of digital signal controllers (DSCs) for embedded designers who need high levels of performance, memory and I/O without the complexity of traditional digital signal processors (DSPs). The dsPIC33 family operates at 40MIPS, with family members ranging from 64 to 256Kbytes of self-programming Flash, 8 to 30Kbytes of RAM and 64- to 100-pin packages. The dsPIC33 features an 8-channel DMA and some versions have two 1.1Msps A/D converters. In addition, the new dsPIC33 family has the same instruction set as the dsPIC30 family and uses the same universal MPLAB development tools that are common to all of Microchip's controller families.

Initially, two dsPIC33 product lines are being brought to market, with the following key features in common:
  • 40 MIPS deterministic performance
  • Serial I/O subsystems, including up to two each: SPI, I2C, UART and CAN
  • 64 to 256 Kbytes Flash
  • 8 to 30 Kbytes RAM
  • 64- to 100-Pin TQFP packages
  • DMA
  • 3.3V operation

dsPIC33 General-Purpose DSCs

Applications for the general-purpose DSCs include: two-way radios, hands-free kits, answering machines, speech and audio playback applications, power-line modems, security systems and portable medical monitoring equipment.

Fifteen dsPIC33 general-purpose devices are being announced at this time. Key features that are specific to this family include:
  • One or two 500 ksps, 12-bit A/D converters
  • Codec interface

dsPIC33 Motor-Control and Power-Conversion DSCs

Applications for these DSCs include: sewing machines, LED lighting arrays, washing machines, access control, online UPS, environmental control, electronically assisted power steering, precision manufacturing equipment, absolute encoders and resolvers, inverters and electric vehicles.

Twelve dsPIC33 motor-control and power-conversion devices are being announced at this time. The key features of this family include:
  • One or two 1.1 Msps 10-bit A/D converters with up to eight sample and holds for simultaneous sampling
  • Specialized PWM for Motor-Control, Lighting and Power-Conversion applications
  • Quadrature Encoder Interface

Development Support

Within the MPLAB IDE, high-level resources are added in a microcontroller-friendly way to allow the utilization of DSC features with minimal effort. These features include Microchip's Visual Device Initializer, which can generate initialization code in a few clicks, and the Motor Control GUI, which can be used to quickly tune dsPIC DSC motor control libraries to a specific motor type. Sophisticated libraries have been developed that fully exploit the dsPIC DSC's capabilities while presenting a user-friendly environment for engineers. Many libraries are free, while others can be licensed for a low one-time fee.

Availability

Selected members of the dsPIC33 family are available today for early adopter sampling. General sampling is expected to start in calendar Q1 2006, and production availability is expected to be staged beginning in calendar Q2 2006.


Reprinted from SOCcentral.com, your first stop for ASIC, FPGA, EDA, and IP news and design information.
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