Controllers meet needs of x86-based notebook designers

The scalable family of MEC14XX devices is one of the first to support both Intel’s enhanced Serial Peripheral Interface (eSPI) and the existing Low Pin Count (LPC) interface. To ease the mobile computing industry’s transition to the new interface and lower-voltage designs, Microchip’s MEC14XX family also provides a flexible arrangement that allows multiple I/O signals to be configured to support either 3.3V or 1.8V, reducing the system BOM cost by eliminating the need for external voltage translators.

These features of the MEC14XX family also allow for a seamless migration of IP reuse across multiple x86 computing platform architectures, such as Intel Atom, Intel iCore and AMD-based systems. This is also Microchip’s first embedded controller family targeted for general x86 computing that includes Microchip’s award-winning MPLAB development tool support.

The MEC14XX devices are offered with a choice of 128, 160 or 192kB of closely-coupled SRAM for code and data that loads from SPI-flash. Designers can leverage the host SPI-flash (used for BIOS storage) for non-volatile EC firmware storage, as a cost-effective system solution. The added choice of either the MEC140X LPC interface devices or the MEC1418, which supports both the LPC and eSPI interfaces, allows the designer to select the most cost-effective device for a particular platform and provides manufacturers the ability to preserve their investments as the industry transitions. All members of the Microchip MEC14XX family are pin and register compatible.

Each member of the MEC14XX family is based on Microchip’s 32-bit PIC MCU architecture and is supported by Microchip’s development tools. Examples include the MPLAB XC compilers, the MPLAB REAL ICE in-circuit emulator (DV244005) priced at $499.98; the MPLAB ICD 3 in-circuit debugger (DV164035) priced at $199.95; and the PICkit 3 starter kit (DV164130) priced at $64.95.

The MEC1404 (128kB SRAM) and MEC1408 (192kB SRAM) embedded controllers supporting the Intel LPC interface are available today for sampling and volume production. The MEC1418 (192kB SRAM) embedded controller, supporting both the Intel LPC and eSPI interfaces, is available today for sampling and volume production. All MEC14XX devices are currently offered in a 128-VTQFP package.