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Questions tagged [microchip]

Microchip Technology is an IC manufacturer, best known for its extensive range of PIC microcontrollers, but also memory and analog function ICs. The term "microchip" is a legacy term for integrated circuits, not just ones designed by Microchip Technologies. The company came into existence and took the name after the term became common parlance.

Microchip Technology is an IC manufacturer, best known for its extensive range of , but also memory and analog function ICs. The term "microchip" is a legacy term for integrated circuits, not just ones designed by Microchip Technologies. The company came into existence and took the name after the term became common parlance.

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What is the difference between a DSP and a standard microcontroller?

I understand that a DSP is optimized for digital signal processing, but I'm not sure how that impacts to the task of choosing an IC. Almost everything I do with a microcontroller involves the processing of digital signals! For example, let's…
Kevin Vermeer
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Why do Microcontrollers need a Clock

Why do instructions need to be processed at set time intervals (i.e. with the use of a clock)? Can't they be executed sequentially - immediately after the previous instruction has completed? An analogy for the necessity of clocks in microcontrollers…
M-R
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Is MCP23017's I2C address matching broken?

I'm struggling to get an I2C master to communicate reliably with a slave, because there's also an MCP23017 port-expander on the same bus. The MCP23017 seems to detect - and ACK! - its address, even when that bit pattern appears coincidentally in the…
SusanW
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Switching from PIC to AVR

I have worked with PIC16 and PIC18s for over three years now and would like to get to know AVR as well. I have no specific project in mind, but would like to try around with the different architectures. I'd like to get a compatibility report on PIC…
user17592
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Is there a difference between an NFC and RFID chip?

The other day, my friend said that he wants to write an app that uses the NFC chip on a phone to read pet microchips. I told him I was pretty sure that pet microchips don't use NFC, but he said he was pretty sure they did. So I hopped onto Wikipedia…
FirePenguin
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How are microscopic transistors on microchips made?

How is something like a microchip which is already small as it is able to house even smaller transistors in the millions at such a micro-scale? It seems like such a feat for machine to be able to make something so small and also functional. Maybe I…
Foo Fighter
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What is the meaning of Microchip's acronym TRIS for data direction registers?

When reading/writing/talking about electronics, I like to understand the acronyms and mneumonics for abbreviations used for registers, functions, filenames, pin names, etc. Usually, the first time the abbreviation is used, either the context or a…
Kevin Vermeer
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What is the difference between Interrupt on Change and External Interrupt on PICs

What is the difference in function between IOC and EXT Interrupt on a PIC? I am currently using a PIC12F1822, and apart from the extra layer of checking you have to do with IOC (i.e. which pin caused the interrupt) the two are identical. What is…
tsiflana
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Is MCP2551 a UART-to-CAN converter?

I want to make a CAN bus sniffer for 250 kbit/s using my computer. After some research I've found that MCP2551 is some kind of voltage level regulator for CAN's physical layer. Keeping that in mind, I'm wondering if this setup could work. I just…
rnunes
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Is there a built-in serial number in PIC chip?

I have tens of PIC16 chips. I would like to retrieve some kind of unique serial number from the chip for identification purposes. I know it can be done manually. But it's tedious. Questions: Does PIC has a built-in serial number? If the answer is…
mlam
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dsPIC33 vs PIC32

I originally thought the advantage of PIC32 was the ability to handle more sophisticated RTOS, like ones that are linux based. Unfortunately it lacks a Memory Management Unit (MMU) and enough ram. So now I'm trying to understand when would you pick…
Iancovici
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How realistic is the famous "Bill sux" picture of a chip internals artwork?

There's an urban legend that some version of Intel Pentium chip had "Bill sux" caption somewhere on the circuit. The legend is accompanied with this picture: Now let's assume for a moment that the legend is in fact true. How realistic is the…
sharptooth
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Can I control a voltage output from a microcontroller?

I have to generate values between 0 V and 0.8 V for a circuit and take the value of the voltage output from the system and analyze the data. Can I generate voltage values automatically using a microcontroller? (For example: 0.05 V, 0.1 V, 0.15 V…
user26136
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What PIC should I use?

What's the best PIC to start learning with? I want a PIC with 8 pins and with analog inputs. I have an 16F628A, but I think that the 16F684 could be better. What is the difference between PIC16F648 and 684A? Which would be best?
Andrew
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dsPIC chips running at a fraction of normal speed

I have two PCBs. One has a dsPIC30F6012a, the other a dsPIC30F6015. Both are being programmed from separate standalone HEX projects in MPLAB X, using a PICkit 3. Both firmwares have been applied to dozens of units prior to this point without…
Stephen Collings
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