PIC18F97J60 Ethernet Microcontroller with MAC & PHY and Free TCP/IP Stack

PIC18F97J60 microcontroller family is specially designed for embedded-ethernet application. Important point about this new Microchip’s 8 bits microcontrollers is they have integrated 10BASE-T Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) controller and peripheral on chip. This is what many embedded-ethernet designer had been waiting for long time.

The PIC18F97J60 family consists of nine MCUs that are optimized for embedded applications, and have an on-chip Medium Access Controller (MAC) and Physical Layer Device (PHY).

…Ethernet can be used to connect embedded devices through a LAN to the Internet. By adding ethernet connectivity,  microcontrollers can distribute data over internet and can be monitored and controlled remotely…

Microchip had been prepared to give more support to TCP/IP ethernet feature for their devices. Months ago they  offered a free TCP/IP software stack. This free  TCP/IP stack can be load into their new PIC18F97J60 family. Designers can now have network connectivity in a single chip. Very simple and cost-effective of embedded-ethernet solutions.

Mitch Obolsky, vice president of Microchip’s Advanced Microcontroller Architecture Division said:

…The need to access embedded applications remotely using Ethernet can be fully realized through the selection of the PIC18F97J60 family…

…Combined with our free TCP/IP stack, the introduction of the high-performance PIC18F97J60 family enables microcontroller-based applications to be cost-effectively monitored or controlled from a remote location…

Key features for all nine members of the PIC18F97J60 8-bit microcontroller family include:

• Seamless Migration: flexibility to add Ethernet connectivity to existing PIC18 designs with minimal cost and development time.
• IEEE 802.3-Compliant: on-chip 10BASE-T MAC and PHY provides reliable packet-data transmission/reception based on an industry standard for Ethernet.
• Dedicated 8-Kbyte Ethernet Buffer: flexible buffer enables efficient packet storage, retrieval and modification, and reduces memory requirements for the integrated microcontroller.
• 128 Kbytes of Flash and 4 Kbytes SRAM: large memory accommodates TCP/IP stack with Web server, leaving ample space for user application code.

Nine members of PIC18F97J60 Microcontrollers Family are:

PIC18F66J60, PIC18F66J65, PIC18F66J60, PIC18F86J60, PIC18F86J65, PIC18F87J60, PIC18F96J60, PIC18F96J65, and PIC18F97J60

Following tables shows you the key properties of PIC18F97J60 Microcontrollers Family:

Development Support:

• PIC18F97J60 PICDEM.netâ„¢ 2 Development Board was created specifically to speed development with these new integrated microcontrollers. Available for $165,
• Microchip’s free PIC18 TCP/IP Ethernet Stack can be downloaded at www.microchip.com/tcpip.
• Microchip’s development tools is compatible with this new microcontrollers, including the MPLAB® VDI, Application Maestroâ„¢, MPLAB ICD 2 in-circuit debugger and the MPLAB C18 C compiler.
   

Application examples of PIC18F97J60 microcontrollers :

• Industrial Automation
  • Industrial Control
  • Power-Supply Monitoring
  • Network/Server Monitoring
  • Environmental Monitoring
• Building Automation
  • Fire & Safety
  • Access Control
  • Security Panels
  • Lighting Control
  • VoIP Intercom
• Commercial Control
  • Kitchen Appliances
  • Drink Dispensers
  • Hotel Minibars
  • POS Terminals
• Home Control
  • Security
  • Networked
  • Appliances

Availability and Pricing

The PIC18F97J60 chips are available for general sampling and volume production. For production, the price is starting at $4.24 (10K-unit quantities).

Packaging:

• PIC18F97J60/96J65/96J60: 100-pin TQFP
• PIC18F87J60/86J65/86J60: 80-pin TQFP
• PIC18F67J60/66J65/66J60: 64-pin TQFP

Source: Microchip, Sept 2006

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Here is some clue about PIC18F97J60 schematic and minimum component count for PIC18F97J60 circuit:
http://forum.microchip.com/tm.aspx?m=196469

Here is some lines about PIC18F97J60 Ethernet Bootloader:
http://forum.microchip.com/tm.aspx?m=204211

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Similar product…

… Taiwan-based ASIX Electronics Corp.. Anounced in June, the  AX110xx family of 8-bit microcontrollers embed 10/100Mbps fast Ethernet MAC/PHY, a TCP/IP accelerator, and flash memory on a single chip. The AX11001/AX11005 and AX11015 MCUs tout a single-cycle pipelined 8051/80390 core (up to 100MIPS), 128 to 512 KBytes flash memory, and 32KBytes RAM. The embedded Ethernet PHY supports Auto-MDIX, …

For comparison of similar product, see Taiwan product: AX11015, Microcontroller with TCP/IP and On-chip Ethernet

You probably also interested with this Freescale embedded-ethernet product: ColdFire MCF5223x Microcontroller with 10/100 Ethernet Peripheral