Leveraging decades of expertise in embedded systems where low power, cost-effectiveness, and rapid development are essential, Microchip Technology has introduced the PIC32CM PL10 MCUs to its PIC32C lineup of Arm Cortex-M0+ devices. The PL10 series comes equipped with a comprehensive set of Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs), supports 5V operation, includes touch-sensing capabilities, integrates development tools, and meets safety standards. These MCUs are designed for high-volume applications such as industrial automation, building management, consumer electronics, power tools, and sensor-driven systems. As part of Microchip’s cohesive MCU strategy, the PL10 family also ensures pin-to-pin compatibility with AVR microcontrollers.
The integrated Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC) along with a 12-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) are designed to provide responsive performance in touch applications and strong noise immunity for analog signal measurement. Additional on-chip CIPs help offload time-critical, repetitive and deterministic tasks from the CPU to improve real-time performance and power efficiency. The PL10 supports the Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS), enabling modular, reusable application code to accelerate development.
In addition to support by Microchip’s MPLAB development ecosystem, the PL10 family embraces industry standard tools and integrated development environments (IDEs) giving developers more freedom to choose how they build, debug and deploy their software. Compatible third-party tools include Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code), IAR Systems, Arm Keil, SEGGER, Zephyr and MikroElektronika. AI-driven resources such as the MPLAB AI Coding Assistant offer context-aware code generation and real-time product insights to help accelerate and simplify development.
“PL10 MCUs help engineers more easily migrate to higher performance microcontrollers while maintaining the straightforward development experience, power efficiency and cost structure of our established 8-bit solutions,” said Greg Robinson, corporate vice president of Microchip’s MCU business unit. “As we prepare to introduce a range of new microcontrollers over the next 12-18 months, with everything spanning entry-level to AI-capable devices, Microchip is strengthening its commitment to a comprehensive MCU portfolio designed to meet evolving market demands.”
The PL10 family is designed to comply with various industry safety standards including International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26262 for functional safety in electrical and electronic systems of road vehicles. Additionally, the MCUs are designed to operate from 1.8 to 5.5 volts, supporting performance in high-noise environments such as automotive, IoT, industrial automation and consumer electronics applications. PL10 MCUs enable simultaneous connection to devices operating at different voltage levels without external level shifters using the integrated Multi-Voltage I/O (MVIO).
