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4/20/2008

Just noticed this weekend that Microchip has finally begun sampling and volume production of their initial PIC32 chips! While we have been enjoying the NXP LPC210X ARM7 microcontrollers previously, the new PIC32 chips look very tempting. An LPC2105 chip provides 32KB of RAM, but at a cost of $7.48 in 100 unit qty. The PIC32MX340F256H provides the same 32KB of RAM, but is quoted at only $5.22 in 100 unit qty. That alone is very tempting, but the PIC32 also goes beyond the LPC2105's capabilities in many other areas: 256KB of FLASH (vs. 128KB), 80MHz operation (vs. 60MHz), internal 1.8V core voltage regulator (vs. 1.8V external regulator required), internal RC oscillator (vs. external oscillator required), and hardware DMA (vs. no DMA). The only real downsides I can see at the moment is slightly fewer PWM pins, capture pins, lower FLASH endurance (1,000 vs 100,000 writes), and a larger footprint of 10mm squared (vs. 7mm squared). Then again, the larger footprint allows for more I/O pins (64 vs. 48), which some people may see as a plus.

I put my sample order in today. I will still need to design a PCB to pull the surface mount pins out to a breadboard compatible format though before I can play with them. Not sure when I'll have time to do that.

4/3/2008

The old web server finally died last night. Luckily, almost everything had already been moved over to a new server about a month ago. Unfortunately, the Wiki wasn't completely done being moved over, so we have lost all previously created Wiki accounts (you'll have to create a new one to edit pages again). We also don't have the main page any more, guess we'll have to start a new one!