Introducing the chipKIT™ WiFire – the first chipKIT™ to feature the latest, most powerful line of Microchip’s microcontroller family.
“The PIC32MZ family provides [2.5x] the performance and 4x the memory over the previous-generation PIC32MX families, along with a high level of advanced peripheral integration. For applications requiring embedded connectivity, the family includes [Hi-Speed USB, Ethernet], along with a broad set of wired and wireless protocol stacks.”
“The PIC32MZ is Microchip’s first MCU to employ MIPS microAptiv™ core, which adds 159 new DSP instructions that enable the execution of DSP algorithms at up to 75% fewer cycles than the PIC32MX families. This core also provides the microMIPS® instruction-set architecture, which improves code density while operating at near full rate, instruction and data cache, and its 200 MHz/330 DMIPS offers [2.5x] the performance of the PIC32MX.” - Microchip Press Release
Building on the previous successes with the chipKIT™ WF32, the WiFire uses the same, 43 available I/O Pins, 12 Analog Inputs, 3.3 Operating voltage, 4 User LEDs, potentiometer, buttons, uses MRF24 on-board wireless module, micro SD Card, dedicated SPI Signals and high efficiency switching 3.3V switching power supply for low-power operation.
Where the boards differ is what the PIC32MZ Processor can deliver.
The WiFire is significantly faster than its WF32 counterpart, with 200MHz operation speed, 2MB of Flash, 512kB RAM, High Speed USB and a 50MHz SPI. The PIC32MZ core includes the MIPS MicroAptiv CPU Core from MIPS. MicroAptiv is a highly efficient, compact, core that is optimized for cloud-connected based projects.
The WiFire can be programmed using MPIDE and with the addition of a compatible in-system programmer/debugger, can be used with the more fully featured/advanced Microchip MPLAB®X IDE.