Microchip Technology is an American manufacturer of microcontroller, memory and

analog semiconductors. Its products include microcontrollers (PICmicro, dsPIC / PIC24, PIC32),
Serial EEPROM devices, Serial SRAM devices, KEELOQdevices, radio frequency (RF) devices,
thermal, power and battery management analog devices, as well as linear, interface and mixed
signal devices. Some of the interface devices include USB, ZigBee/MiWi, Controller Area Network,
and Ethernet.
Corporate headquarters is located at Chandler, Arizona with wafer fabs in Tempe,
Arizona and Gresham, Oregon, and assembly/test facilities in Chachoengsao, Thailand. Sales for
the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2014 were $1,931,217,000.[2]
Among its chief competitors are Analog Devices, Atmel, Freescale (spin-off from
Motorola), Infineon, Maxim Integrated Products, NXP Semiconductors (spin-off from
Philips), Renesas Electronics, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments.
Contents
[hide]

1 History

2 Products
o

2.1 Microcontrollers

2.2 Integrated circuits

3 Acquisitions
o

3.1 HI-TECH Software

3.2 Silicon Storage Technology

4 References

5 External links

History[edit]
Microchip Technology was founded in 1987 when General Instrument spun off its microelectronics
division as a wholly owned subsidiary.[3] Microchip Technology became an independent company in
1989 when it was acquired by a group of venture capitalists, and went public in 1993. [4]
In April 2009, Microchip Technology announced the nanoWatt XLP Microcontrollers (With Worlds
Lowest Sleep Current).[5]Microchip Technology had sold more than 6 billion microcontrollers as of
2009.[6]

In April 2010, Microchip acquired Silicon Storage Technology (SST),[7] and sold several SST flash
memory assets to Greenliant Systems in May that year.[8]
As of 2011, Microchip Technology ships over a billion processors every year. In September 2011,
Microchip Technology shipped the 10 billionth PIC microcontroller.[9]
In August 2012, Microchip acquired Standard Microsystems Corporation (SMSC). [10] Among SMSC's
assets were those it had previously acquired from Symwave, a start-up that specialized in USB
3.0 chips, and two hi-fi wireless audio companiesKleer Semiconductor and Wireless Audio IP BV.[11]
[12][13]

Products[edit]
Microchip develops a wide range of microcontrollers and integrated circuits (ICs), for the hobbyist
and professional markets.

Microcontrollers[edit]
Microchip is widely known for their line of PICMicro microcontrollers, and their MCU-related product
line includes:

PIC Microcontrollers

8-bit MCUs - PIC10, PIC12, PIC16, PIC18

16-bit MCUs - PIC24, dsPIC

32-bit MCUs - PIC32MX

Legacy 8051 MCUs

KEELOQ MCUs for security applications

rfPIC MCUs for wireless sensor applications

Computer software

MPLAB IDE

C and C++ compilers for PIC/dsPIC MCUs

Code libraries for PIC/dsPIC MCUs

Development hardware

MPLAB series (debuggers & programmers for professionals)

PICKit series (programmers for hobbyists and students)

Integrated circuits[edit]
The Microchip product line of integrated circuits include:

Memory storage devices

Serial EEPROM chips

Serial SRAM chips

Serial Flash chips

Parallel Flash chips

Interface devices

USB controllers

ZigBee/MiWi controllers

CAN/LIN controllers

Ethernet controllers

Power management devices

Battery charge controllers (Li-Ion, NiMH, Multi-Chemistry)

Power MOSFETs

Voltage regulators

Motor drivers

PWM-based controllers

DC motor controllers

BLDC motor controllers

mTouch (capacitive sensor technology)

RightTouch (turn-key capacitive sensor technology)

GestIC (3D Tracking and gesture detection technology)

Haptics (Eccentric Rotating Mass (ERM) actuators)

Ultrasound devices

Ultrasound switches

Ultrasound transmitters

Acquisitions[edit]
HI-TECH Software[edit]
HI-TECH Software was an Australian-based company that provides ANSI C compilers and
development tools. Founded in 1984, the company is best known for its HI-TECH C PRO compilers
with whole-program compilation technology, or Omniscient Code Generation (OCG). [14][15] HI-TECH
Software was bought by Microchip on 20 February 2009,[16] whereupon it refocused its development
effort exclusively on supporting Microchip products.[17]
Supported manufacturers and architectures :

Microchip PIC10, PIC12, PIC14, PIC16, PIC18, PIC24, PIC32 and dsPIC

Cypress PSoC's

Silicon Laboratories MCUs

8051 MCUs

Z80 for CP/M[18] and Z80 cross compiler.

Silicon Storage Technology[edit]

Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. (SST) was a Sunnyvale, California, USA, technology company
producing non-volatile memory devices and related products.[19][20]SST supplies of NOR flash and
other integrated circuits for high-volume applications.[21]
Bing Yeh co-founded SST in August 1989, and served as its chief executive. [22]
At the 1992 Fall COMDEX trade show, SST introduced the first single-board 30 MB 2.5 solid-state
drive with standard hard-disk ATA interface and a 5 MB PC Cardmemory card with built-in controller
and firmware.[23]
In 1993, SST moved its headquarters to Sunnyvale. That same year, SST introduced its first
SuperFlash technology products, with lower costs and faster write speeds. By the end of 1995, more
than 90% of the PC motherboards produced in Taiwan had adopted SST's 1 Mbit SuperFlash
EEPROM product for the BIOSstorage.[citation needed] The company had its initial public offering November
21, 1995, trading on the NASDAQ market under the symbol SSTI.[24] Analytical models of SuperFlash
were published.[25][26] A five year licensing agreement was announced in January 1999 with Acer Inc..
[27]

A 1997 lawsuit filed by Intel was settled in May 1999 after mediation. [28]

In 2004, SST began to diversify beyond flash memory products, targeting consumer and industrial
products with embedded solid-state data storage and RF wireless communication. [29] In September
2004 SST purchased a majority stake in Emosyn, which designed products for SIM cards. In
October it announced the acquisition of G-Plus, based in Santa Monica, California.[29]
In 2006, SST announced a joint development agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company (TSMC) to develop 90 nm SuperFlash technology.[30]
SST had its stock option grant practices investigated by the US Securities and Exchange
Commission, ending in June 2008.[31] It determined it needed to restate earnings, and was giving a
de-listing notice by NASDAQ for filing late reports from 2006 through 2007. [32] Business slowed in
the Great Recession.The company announced a loss on reduced revenues, reducing its workforce
by 17% in December 2008.[33]
In November 2009, Technology Resource Holdings offered to acquire the company for about $200
million, but a group of shareholders thought it was undervalued. [34]Starting in February 2010, private
equity firm Cerberus Capital Management and public company Microchip Technology both made
offers to acquire SST.[35][36] In April 2010, Microchip completed the acquisition for about $292 million. [37]
[38]

Microchip sold several SST flash memory assets to Greenliant Systems (founded by Yeh) in May

that year.[39]