Microchip Technology’s 8bit PIC18 MCUs transmit and receive data through CAN bus Flexible Data rate “without the need for gateways or sophisticated network switching techniques,” Electronics Weekly reported.

These MCUs are part of Microchips’s PIC18 Q84 product line for transporting sensor data to a CAN FD bus. These components are being used in automotive builds.

“CAN FD will play a critical role in delivering faster data transfer rates for applications ranging from the connected car to industrial automation and smart homes,” Microchip marketing v-p Greg Robinson told EW.

The series includes some of Microchip’s ‘core independent peripherals’   for use in a variety of tasks without requiring CPU intervention. Available peripherals include a 32-bit ‘cyclic redundancy check with scan’ and a windowed watchdog timer for functional safety, and some have a JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) interface for testing and debugging.

Features include, though not all have everything

• 64MHz internal oscillator

• Up to 128kbyte flash program memory

• Up to 13kbyte data SRAM

• Up to 1kbyte data EEPROM

• 12bit ADC with computation and context switching, up to 43 channels

• 16-bit universal timers

• Vectored interrupt capability

• Windowed watchdog timer

• 32bit cyclic redundancy check with scan

• JTAG boundary scan

• CAN FD, UART, SPI and I2C

• 28, 40 and 48pin packages

“Support includes the PIC18F57Q84 Curiosity Nano evaluation kit (DM182030, pictured above) and a Curiosity High Pin Count (HPC) development board. A plug-in module is also available for the Automotive Networking development board. Software includes the MPLAB Code Configurator for creating initialisation code,” Electronics Weekly explained.