“Are you looking for a business partner — not just a vendor — that provides quality components?”
“Are you upgrading your product?”
“What are your design goals?”
These questions, posed by Microchip Technology, help teams fine-tune their priorities so they can a.) develop strategic supplier relationships, b.) cut down revision cycle times, c.) determine responsible cost-cutting measures, and d.) gain a cross-market competitive edge.
Overall, this seems quite solid. (Particularly amidst what some call “innovation oversaturation,” i.e. a trend following technologies purported to be bona fide groundbreaking, yet are debuted without complete consideration for potentially more pressing needs that should, in such a case, be addressed first.)
However, this story (no one’s story, really) is railroaded by pure linearity; we neither live nor work in a binary. (I don’t believe humans are made for that.) What I mean is that two things can be true at the same time — oversaturated markets can be flagged as such, and a great quantity of products can still be availed without immediately being considered “too much.” Moderation and careful, trained focus on both the quantity and quality of innovation at play are equally important.
This is why Microchip Technology endeavors to innovate, simply put, wherever innovation is truly necessary. This provider of smart, connected and secure embedded control and processing solutions offers many easy-to-use development tools that enable its customers to create optimal designs while lowering total risks and costs. Currently, the company's solutions serve approximately 123,000 customers in need across the industrial, automotive, consumer, aerospace and defense, communications and computing markets.
And that brings us to news that dropped earlier this morning, readers:
Microchip Technology has officially added 20 products to its portfolio. These have been designed to support specific application needs based on developers’ skill levels; the selection ranges from modules that are already extensively certified and require little expertise, to robust Systems-on-Chips (SoCs) with a slew of industrial-level features.
As part of its announcement, Microchip Technology recognized that, quote, “Industry 4.0, digitized manufacturing, and the rapid rise of AI in this age of ‘IoT-everything,’ the demand for reliable wireless connectivity is growing at an exceptional pace. High-performance industrial solutions that can withstand extreme environments with high temperatures, background noise and other obstructions should be compatible with legacy devices to ease migration.”
And so, Microchip Technology’s portfolio now includes:
- Wi-Fi MCUs designed to combine the functionality of an MCU with dependable wireless connectivity
- Link Controllers with a companion SDIO interface that enables the addition of Wi-Fi to Linux MPUs
- Network Controllers with an SPI interface that allows for the addition of wireless connectivity to an MCU
- Plug-and-Play Modules that simplify wireless-to-cloud connectivity by sending simple text commands from an MCU over a UART interface
Furthermore, Microchip Technology is aware that secure connections (which are, of course, critical for Wi-Fi applications that send and/or receive data from the cloud) can be challenging to implement in various IIoT settings (and, again, depending on developers’ respective skill sets). Therefore, on this quest to make “innovation more accessible” in a sense, the company has also integrated its Trust Platform into many of its new products to streamline the process of secure network authentication. Read more about that here.
Rishi Vasuki, Vice President of Microchip Technology’s Wireless Solutions Business Unit, closed by explaining that “For decades, Microchip has been a respected MCU provider. We’ve leveraged that background, along with our comprehensive support ecosystem, to continue building a portfolio of Wi-Fi products and services that is unmatched in the industry today.”
Learn more about Industrial Internet of Things solutions and Industry 4.0 innovation at IoT Evolution Expo 2025, which will be taking place from February 11-13, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Part of the #TECHSUPERSHOW experience, this event combines educational conference programming with a robust exhibit hall, networking events and other activities, bringing together buyers and providers of business technology products and services that are huge for IoT.
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
