14 DAY TRIAL // Worldwide provider of microcontrollers and analog semiconductors Microchip Technology Inc. was revealed today to have received no less than three different awards in three different countries for its technology, which excels in the area of low-power consumption. Microchip's portfolio is comprised of products that implement advanced power-saving techniques, enabling said products to meet the demand for the eXtreme Low Power Technology. The sleep currents achieved by these microcontrollers can even reach as low as 20nA, allowing for a battery life of up to an astounding 20 years.
“Since the introduction of our PIC microcontrollers with XLP, there has been an overwhelmingly positive response from customers around the world who have been able to lower their power budgets substantially over competing MCUs,” Steve Sanghi, Microchip president and CEO, said. “We are honored by these international awards, which validate what thousands of customers have already discovered—that Microchip offers the world’s lowest power microcontrollers.”
Microchip received the three awards for its PIC microcontrollers equipped with the nanoWatt XLP eXtreme Low Power Technology features. The PIC MCUs received the European prestigious 2009 Elektra Award in the Semiconductor Product of the Year category. A second prize was the “Leading Product Award” in the Microprocessor and DSP category, given as part of the 2009 EDN China Innovation Awards. Finally, the XLP was presented with the May 2009 Editor’s Choice Technology Award by the Wireless Design & Development Magazine in the United States.
Microchip offers support for its PIC microcontrollers through the MPLAB IDE and the MPLAB REAL ICE emulation systems, as well as through the MPLAB ICD 3 in-circuit debugger, the PICkit 3 low-cost debugger and its free C compilers.
Full information on the nanoWatt XLP eXtreme-equipped PIC microcontrollers may be found on Microchip's website, and the software tools mentioned above are also available for online download from the same site.