Microchip continues to prove that there's life at 8 bits

by Rich Nass, Embedded Computing Brand Director, Aug. 12, 2015 – 

Lots of industry pundits continue to crow that the 8-bit MCU market is dead, that 16- or 32-bit devices are so cheap that there's no need for 8-bit devices. With Arm's M0 and M3 architectures, it's almost tough to dispute the argument. However, Microchip continues to crank out 8-bit parts and, according to all reports, surveys, etc., they continue to fly off the shelf. Go figure.

The latest example of Microchip's run of products includes two 8-bit PIC MCU families, the PIC16F18877 and PIC16F1579, which are designed with Core-Independent Peripherals (CIPs). This technology, which includes a growing number of intelligent, connected devices, lets the 8-bit MCUs operate in a broader range of applications. Note that the interconnected CIPs can perform functions autonomously, without the core. Because these functions are deterministically and reliably performed in hardware instead of software, CIPs enable system performance that's beyond typical 8-bit MCUs while simplifying the design and reducing memory cost.

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