Microchip Technology Introduces New Family of 40MHz 3V PIC18F Flash Microcontrollers

Microchip Technology Inc. today announced the first ten members of its
high-pin count, high-density memory PIC18F87J10 Flash microcontroller
family, which double the performance in low-voltage applications by
delivering up to 10 MIPS at 3V.

http://microcontroller.com/news/microchip_pic18_40mhz.asp

A PIC18F product roadmap is included with this article.

-Bill Giovino
 Executive Editor
 http://Microcontroller.com

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 19:36:20 -0400, the renowned "Bill Giovino"
<editor@nospam-microcontroller.com> wrote:

>Microchip Technology Inc. today announced the first ten members of its
>high-pin count, high-density memory PIC18F87J10 Flash microcontroller
>family, which double the performance in low-voltage applications by
>delivering up to 10 MIPS at 3V.
>
>http://microcontroller.com/news/microchip_pic18_40mhz.asp
>
>A PIC18F product roadmap is included with this article.

Interesting. 3.6V max with a lower (externally regulated) voltage for
the core. 


Best regards, 
Spehro Pefhany
-- 
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 19:36:20 -0400, "Bill Giovino"
<editor@nospam-microcontroller.com> wrote:

>Microchip Technology Inc. today announced the first ten members of its
>high-pin count, high-density memory PIC18F87J10 Flash microcontroller
>family, which double the performance in low-voltage applications by
>delivering up to 10 MIPS at 3V.
>
>http://microcontroller.com/news/microchip_pic18_40mhz.asp
>
>A PIC18F product roadmap is included with this article.
>
>-Bill Giovino
> Executive Editor
> http://Microcontroller.com
>
>
The real question is why is it so poor? It runs at 3v, but must be
really old technology. The Ubicom ip2k is a super PIC, has been out
since 2000, runs at 3.3 or 2.5 volts, is 5 volt tolerant and runs at
160 MHZ and MIP. I would expect a price premium for speed, but the
ip2k is not that expensive.

Intel p4 processors run at close to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2
orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros
are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are
way to slow for this time in the industry.

If you guys cannot build your own fast PICs why not just buy Ubicom?
There is no "x" in my email address.

Steve Calfee <stevexcalfee@hotmail.com> wrote:
> The real question is why is it so poor? It runs at 3v, but must be
> really old technology. The Ubicom ip2k is a super PIC, has been out
> since 2000, runs at 3.3 or 2.5 volts, is 5 volt tolerant and runs at
> 160 MHZ and MIP. I would expect a price premium for speed, but the
> ip2k is not that expensive.
> 
> Intel p4 processors run at close to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2
> orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros
> are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are
> way to slow for this time in the industry.
> 
> If you guys cannot build your own fast PICs why not just buy Ubicom?
> There is no "x" in my email address.

The demand is not there. Also high frequency clock are bad for EMC if the 
designer does not know what he or she is doing.

All in all, frequencies beyond about 100Mhz are simply not neccesary for 
what people are buying them for. In most control applications, the sample 
rates are extremely low. Even driving something like a character LCD 
screen doesn't require that fast of a chip.

Personally I don't mind them increasing the speed of chip, keeps me 
employed.

-- 

Wing Wong.

to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2
> orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros
> are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are
> way to slow for this time in the industry.

If you need more speed, use an ARM or something. If there was a 
significant demand for high speed 8 bitters more companies would make them.

cheers,

Al

Al Borowski <al.borowski@erasethis.gmail.com> wrote:
> If you need more speed, use an ARM or something. If there was a 
> significant demand for high speed 8 bitters more companies would make them.
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Al
I suppose, if a fast 8 bitter was absolutely required, the easiest to get 
a fast 8 bitter would be to implement one in FPGA logic. There are many 
free cores out there.

P.S Al, I see you lurk here too!

-- 

Wing Wong.

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 01:40:57 +0000 (UTC), W W <w@w.com> wrote:

>Steve Calfee <stevexcalfee@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> The real question is why is it so poor? It runs at 3v, but must be
>> really old technology. The Ubicom ip2k is a super PIC, has been out
>> since 2000, runs at 3.3 or 2.5 volts, is 5 volt tolerant and runs at
>> 160 MHZ and MIP. I would expect a price premium for speed, but the
>> ip2k is not that expensive.
>> 
>> Intel p4 processors run at close to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2
>> orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros
>> are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are
>> way to slow for this time in the industry.
>> 
>> If you guys cannot build your own fast PICs why not just buy Ubicom?
>> There is no "x" in my email address.
>
>The demand is not there. Also high frequency clock are bad for EMC if the 
>designer does not know what he or she is doing.
>
>All in all, frequencies beyond about 100Mhz are simply not neccesary for 
>what people are buying them for. In most control applications, the sample 
>rates are extremely low. Even driving something like a character LCD 
>screen doesn't require that fast of a chip.
>
I remember a similar quote about 640K being enough memory for anyone?
If speed and pins were not important why would microchip be
advertizing their new chip as:

<quote>
Microchip Technology Inc. today announced the first ten members of its
high-pin count, high-density memory PIC18F87J10 Flash microcontroller
family, which double the performance in low-voltage applications by
delivering up to 10 MIPS at 3V.
</quote>

This implies to me that more memory, more speed and more pins is
desireable. It seems that embedded devices that can connect directly
to ethernet or WIFI would be desireable.

My question is why are the single chippers (which should have big
advantages in memory access and EMI), soo slow?


There is no "x" in my email address.

Steve Calfee wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 01:40:57 +0000 (UTC), W W <w@w.com> wrote:
>
> >Steve Calfee <stevexcalfee@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >> The real question is why is it so poor? It runs at 3v, but must be
> >> really old technology. The Ubicom ip2k is a super PIC, has been
out
> >> since 2000, runs at 3.3 or 2.5 volts, is 5 volt tolerant and runs
at
> >> 160 MHZ and MIP. I would expect a price premium for speed, but the
> >> ip2k is not that expensive.
> >>
> >> Intel p4 processors run at close to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much?
2
> >> orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip
micros
> >> are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics
are
> >> way to slow for this time in the industry.
> >>
> >> If you guys cannot build your own fast PICs why not just buy
Ubicom?
> >> There is no "x" in my email address.
> >
> >The demand is not there. Also high frequency clock are bad for EMC
if the
> >designer does not know what he or she is doing.
> >
> >All in all, frequencies beyond about 100Mhz are simply not neccesary
for
> >what people are buying them for. In most control applications, the
sample
> >rates are extremely low. Even driving something like a character LCD

> >screen doesn't require that fast of a chip.
> >
> I remember a similar quote about 640K being enough memory for anyone?
> If speed and pins were not important why would microchip be
> advertizing their new chip as:
>
> <quote>
> Microchip Technology Inc. today announced the first ten members of
its
> high-pin count, high-density memory PIC18F87J10 Flash microcontroller
> family, which double the performance in low-voltage applications by
> delivering up to 10 MIPS at 3V.
> </quote>
>
> This implies to me that more memory, more speed and more pins is
> desireable. It seems that embedded devices that can connect directly
> to ethernet or WIFI would be desireable.
>
> My question is why are the single chippers (which should have big
> advantages in memory access and EMI), soo slow?
>
>
> There is no "x" in my email address.

Power, a 4Ghz Ipod will not be attractive to many consumers due to 20 D
cells you have to hang around your neck, to say nothing of the noise
the fan would make. More pins, memory and speed are generally
desireable, but battery technology simply hasn't kept pace with the
silicon.

"W W" <w@w.com> wrote in message news:d4k6l1$k4$1@enyo.uwa.edu.au...

> I suppose, if a fast 8 bitter was absolutely required, the easiest to get
> a fast 8 bitter would be to implement one in FPGA logic. There are many
> free cores out there.
>
> P.S Al, I see you lurk here too!
>
> --
>
> Wing Wong.

Indeed, that's what many are doing for many different reasons.  I needed a
fast 8051 to leverage 10 years of stability in a large (>256k) assembler
app.  An FPGA with a fast (not free) 8051 core was my choice.

--
Alf Katz

alfkatz@remove.the.obvious.ieee.org

"Good, Fast, Cheap: pick any two" - my company motto.

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 11:42:50 +1000, Al Borowski
<al.borowski@EraseThis.gmail.com> wrote:

>to 4 GHZ, why do you lag so much? 2
>> orders of magnitude? Could someone explain while single chip micros
>> are so far behind the state of the art? The fastest 8051 and Pics are
>> way to slow for this time in the industry.
>
>If you need more speed, use an ARM or something. If there was a 
>significant demand for high speed 8 bitters more companies would make them.


I know what you mean about ARM.  However, there are other 8 bit micros
that are faster and cheaper than the PIC18 series.  I am thinking of
devices such as Atmel ATmega168.  20MIPS at 20MHz.  The lower clock
rate is usually an advantage in passing EMC compliance tests.  

Atmel also offer an 8051 core that can match this speed, however the
AVR will perform better with high level languages.  (more registers
and much more efficient memory addressing)

regards,
Johnny.