Microchip Technology Incorporated engages in the development and manufacture of specialized semiconductor products used by its customers for a variety of embedded control applications. The company’s product portfolio comprises 8- and 16-bit PIC microcontrollers and 16-bit dsPIC digital signal controllers, which feature on-board Flash (reprogrammable) memory technology. In addition, the company offers high-performance linear, mixed-signal, power management, thermal management, battery management and interface devices. It also makes serial EEPROMs.
Products
The company focuses on embedded control solutions, including: microcontrollers, development tools, analog and interface products, and memory products.
Microcontrollers
The company offers a family of microcontroller products featuring proprietary architecture marketed under the PIC brand name. It has shipped approximately 5 billion PIC microcontrollers to customers worldwide. PIC products are designed for applications requiring field-programmability. They feature a variety of memory technology configurations, low voltage and power, and small footprint. The company’s performance results from a product architecture which features dual data and instruction pathways, referred to as a Harvard dual-bus architecture; a Reduced Instruction Set Computer, referred to as RISC; and variable length instructions; all of which provide significant speed advantages over alternative single-bus, Complex Instruction Set Computer architectures, referred to as CISC. With approximately 400 microcontrollers in product portfolio, the company targets the 8-bit and 16-bit microcontroller markets. Additionally, the company’s scalable product architecture allows targeting both the entry-level of the 32-bit microcontroller market, as well as the 4-bit microcontroller marketplace.
Digital Signal Controllers (DSC) is a subset of the company’s 16-bit microcontroller offering. The company’s dsPIC Digital Signal Controller families integrate the control features of high-performance 16-bit microcontrollers with the computation capabilities of Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), along with a variety of peripheral functions making them suitable for a large number of embedded control applications. The company’s dsPIC product family offers a suite of hardware and software development tools, software application libraries, development boards and reference designs.
Development Tools
The company offers a set of application development tools. These tools enable system designers to program a PIC microcontroller and dsPIC Digital Signal Controllers for specific applications.
The company’s family of development tools operates in the standard Windows environment on standard PC hardware. These tools range from entry-level systems, which include an assembler and programmer or in-circuit debugging hardware, to fully configured systems that provide in-circuit emulation hardware. Customers moving from entry-level designs to those requiring real-time emulation are able to preserve their investment in learning and tools as they migrate to future PIC devices since all of the company’s systems share the same integrated development environment. Many independent companies also develop and market application development tools that support the company’s standard microcontroller product architecture.
Analog and Interface Products
The company’s analog and interface products consist of various families with approximately 500 power management, linear, mixed-signal, thermal management and interface products. As of March 31, 2007, the company’s mixed-signal analog and interface products were being shipped to approximately 12,100 end customers.
Memory Products
The company’s memory products consist primarily of serial electrically erasable programmable read only memory, referred to as Serial EEPROMs. It sells these devices primarily into the embedded control market. Serial EEPROM products are used for non-volatile program and data storage in systems where such data must be either modified frequently or retained for long periods. Serial EEPROMs have a very low I/O pin requirement, permitting production of very small devices.
Markets
The company offers its products in a variety of geographical markets that include: the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Americas include the United States, Canada, Central America, and South America.
History
Microchip Technology Incorporated was founded in 1989.
