This is a list of common microcontrollers listed by brand.
In 2015, Altera was acquired by Intel, and then spun back out on it's own in 2024.
While Arm is a fabless semiconductor company (it does not manufacture or sell its own chips), it licenses the ARM architecture family design to a variety of companies. Those companies in turn sell billions of ARM-based chips per year—12 billion ARM-based chips shipped in 2014, [1] about 24 billion ARM-based chips shipped in 2020, [2] some of those are popular chips in their own right.
In 2016, Atmel was sold to Microchip Technology.
In 2020, Cypress Semiconductor was acquired by Infineon Technologies.
ELAN Microelectronics Corporation is an IC designer and provider of 8-bit microcontrollers and PC Peripheral ICs. Headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, the Silicon Valley of Taiwan, ELAN's microcontroller product range includes the following:
These are clones of the 12- and 14-bit Microchip PIC line of processors, but with a 13-bit instruction word.
Espressif Systems, a company with headquarters in Shanghai, China made its debut in the microcontroller scene with their range of inexpensive and feature-packed WiFi microcontrollers such as ESP8266.
Until 2004, these μCs were developed and marketed by Motorola, whose semiconductor division was spun off to establish Freescale. In 2015, Freescale was acquired by NXP.
Holtek Semiconductor is a major Taiwan-based designer of 32-bit microcontrollers, 8-bit microcontrollers and peripheral products. Microcontroller products are centred around an ARM core in the case of 32-bit products and 8051 based core and Holtek's own core in the case of 8-bit products. Located in the Hsinchu Science Park ( [1]), the company's product range includes the following microcontroller device series:
Infineon offers microcontrollers for the automotive, industrial and multimarket industry. DAVE3, a component based auto code generation free tool, provides faster development of complex embedded projects.
X | On-chip code memory |
---|---|
0 | No on-chip memory |
3 | OTP |
7 | EEPROM |
9 | Flash |
In 2021, Maxim Integrated was acquired by Analog Devices.
Since 2013, Microchip has shipped over 1 billion PIC microcontrollers per year, growing every year. [5]
Microchip produces microcontrollers with three very different architectures:
8-bit (8-bit data bus) PICmicro, with a single accumulator (8 bits):
16-bit (16-bit data bus) microcontrollers, with 16 general-purpose registers (each 16-bit)
32-bit (32-bit data bus) microcontrollers:
Nordic Semiconductor is a company with headquarters in Trondheim, Norway offering low power Bluetooth Low Energy SoCs as well as cellular network connectivity solutions for IoT devices.
Renesas is a joint venture comprising the semiconductor businesses of Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and NEC Electronics, creating the largest microcontroller manufacturer in the world.
Rockwell semiconductors (now called Conexant) created a line of 6502 based microcontrollers that were used with their telecom (modem) chips. Most of their microcontrollers were packaged in a QIP package.
Manufactures a line of 8-bit 8051-compatible microcontrollers, notable for high speeds (50–100 MIPS) and large memories in relatively small package sizes. A free IDE is available that supports the USB-connected ToolStick line of modular prototyping boards. These microcontrollers were originally developed by Cygnal. In 2012, the company introduced ARM-based mixed-signal MCUs with very low power and USB options, supported by free Eclipse-based tools. The company acquired Energy Micro in 2013 and now offers a number of ARM-based 32-bit microcontrollers.
Microcontrollers acquired from Fujitsu:
While Synopsys does not manufacture or sell chips directly, Synopsys licenses the ARC Processor design to a variety of companies that, as of 2020, ship about 1.5 billion products based on ARC processors per year. [2]
The Stellaris and Tiva families, in particular, provide a high level of community-based, open source support through the TI e2e forums. [9] [10]
Manufactures a line of full-stack MCUs.
The Western Design Center licenses the 65C02 and 65816 designs to a variety of companies. Those companies produce the 6502 (typically as part of a larger chip) in quantities over a hundred million units per year. [11]
Zilog's (primary) microcontroller families, in chronological order:
Company name | Name | CPU | Bits | Status | Max. MHz | Flash KB | RAM KB | Price @1K USD | Active power | Sleep power | External mem. | UARTs | SPI | I2C | CAN | Ethernet | USB | ADCs | DACs | Features |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Energy Micro | EFM32TG110 | ARM Cortex-M3 | 32 | Production | 32 | 32 | 4 | $2.47 | 157 μA/MHz @ 32 MHz | 1 μA | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2× 16-bit timers. 12-bit 1 Msps ADC. 12-bit 500 ksps DAC. | ||
Zilog | eZ80 | Fast Z80 | 8/16 | Production | 50 | 256 | 16 | $7.79 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Linear addressing up to 16 MB. 3–4× faster than traditional Z80. | ||||
Texas Instruments | MSP430FR2632 | RISC | 16 | 16 | 8 | 2 | $0.924 | 126 μA/MHz | <5 μA | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | Capacitive touch MCU with 8 touch IO (16 sensors), 8KB FRAM, 2KB SRAM, 15 IO, 10-bit ADC |
This is a list of common microcontrollers listed by brand.
In 2015, Altera was acquired by Intel, and then spun back out on it's own in 2024.
While Arm is a fabless semiconductor company (it does not manufacture or sell its own chips), it licenses the ARM architecture family design to a variety of companies. Those companies in turn sell billions of ARM-based chips per year—12 billion ARM-based chips shipped in 2014, [1] about 24 billion ARM-based chips shipped in 2020, [2] some of those are popular chips in their own right.
In 2016, Atmel was sold to Microchip Technology.
In 2020, Cypress Semiconductor was acquired by Infineon Technologies.
ELAN Microelectronics Corporation is an IC designer and provider of 8-bit microcontrollers and PC Peripheral ICs. Headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, the Silicon Valley of Taiwan, ELAN's microcontroller product range includes the following:
These are clones of the 12- and 14-bit Microchip PIC line of processors, but with a 13-bit instruction word.
Espressif Systems, a company with headquarters in Shanghai, China made its debut in the microcontroller scene with their range of inexpensive and feature-packed WiFi microcontrollers such as ESP8266.
Until 2004, these μCs were developed and marketed by Motorola, whose semiconductor division was spun off to establish Freescale. In 2015, Freescale was acquired by NXP.
Holtek Semiconductor is a major Taiwan-based designer of 32-bit microcontrollers, 8-bit microcontrollers and peripheral products. Microcontroller products are centred around an ARM core in the case of 32-bit products and 8051 based core and Holtek's own core in the case of 8-bit products. Located in the Hsinchu Science Park ( [1]), the company's product range includes the following microcontroller device series:
Infineon offers microcontrollers for the automotive, industrial and multimarket industry. DAVE3, a component based auto code generation free tool, provides faster development of complex embedded projects.
X | On-chip code memory |
---|---|
0 | No on-chip memory |
3 | OTP |
7 | EEPROM |
9 | Flash |
In 2021, Maxim Integrated was acquired by Analog Devices.
Since 2013, Microchip has shipped over 1 billion PIC microcontrollers per year, growing every year. [5]
Microchip produces microcontrollers with three very different architectures:
8-bit (8-bit data bus) PICmicro, with a single accumulator (8 bits):
16-bit (16-bit data bus) microcontrollers, with 16 general-purpose registers (each 16-bit)
32-bit (32-bit data bus) microcontrollers:
Nordic Semiconductor is a company with headquarters in Trondheim, Norway offering low power Bluetooth Low Energy SoCs as well as cellular network connectivity solutions for IoT devices.
Renesas is a joint venture comprising the semiconductor businesses of Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and NEC Electronics, creating the largest microcontroller manufacturer in the world.
Rockwell semiconductors (now called Conexant) created a line of 6502 based microcontrollers that were used with their telecom (modem) chips. Most of their microcontrollers were packaged in a QIP package.
Manufactures a line of 8-bit 8051-compatible microcontrollers, notable for high speeds (50–100 MIPS) and large memories in relatively small package sizes. A free IDE is available that supports the USB-connected ToolStick line of modular prototyping boards. These microcontrollers were originally developed by Cygnal. In 2012, the company introduced ARM-based mixed-signal MCUs with very low power and USB options, supported by free Eclipse-based tools. The company acquired Energy Micro in 2013 and now offers a number of ARM-based 32-bit microcontrollers.
Microcontrollers acquired from Fujitsu:
While Synopsys does not manufacture or sell chips directly, Synopsys licenses the ARC Processor design to a variety of companies that, as of 2020, ship about 1.5 billion products based on ARC processors per year. [2]
The Stellaris and Tiva families, in particular, provide a high level of community-based, open source support through the TI e2e forums. [9] [10]
Manufactures a line of full-stack MCUs.
The Western Design Center licenses the 65C02 and 65816 designs to a variety of companies. Those companies produce the 6502 (typically as part of a larger chip) in quantities over a hundred million units per year. [11]
Zilog's (primary) microcontroller families, in chronological order:
Company name | Name | CPU | Bits | Status | Max. MHz | Flash KB | RAM KB | Price @1K USD | Active power | Sleep power | External mem. | UARTs | SPI | I2C | CAN | Ethernet | USB | ADCs | DACs | Features |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Energy Micro | EFM32TG110 | ARM Cortex-M3 | 32 | Production | 32 | 32 | 4 | $2.47 | 157 μA/MHz @ 32 MHz | 1 μA | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2× 16-bit timers. 12-bit 1 Msps ADC. 12-bit 500 ksps DAC. | ||
Zilog | eZ80 | Fast Z80 | 8/16 | Production | 50 | 256 | 16 | $7.79 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Linear addressing up to 16 MB. 3–4× faster than traditional Z80. | ||||
Texas Instruments | MSP430FR2632 | RISC | 16 | 16 | 8 | 2 | $0.924 | 126 μA/MHz | <5 μA | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | Capacitive touch MCU with 8 touch IO (16 sensors), 8KB FRAM, 2KB SRAM, 15 IO, 10-bit ADC |