Microchip Unveils First Low-Power Digital-to-Analog Converter to Simplify Handheld Designs by Including Nonvolatile Memory

Implementing multi-channel system control or signal outputs using Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) in today’s portable and handheld consumer, communications, and medical systems has been difficult to do without significant processor overhead for device configuration during power-up. Microchip Technology announced a solution to this problem with its MCP47/48FxBx8 family of octal 12-bit DACs, the first of their kind to include nonvolatile memory and an integrated Voltage Reference (Vref) source so they can be pre-configured for safe and efficient power-up without relying on the system processor.