PIC17LC44-08I/P
PIC17LC44-08I/P - 8-bit 8MHz 16KB OTP MCU 40-PDIP | Microchip
The Microchip PIC17LC44-08I/P is an 8-bit CMOS RISC microcontroller from the PIC17C/PIC17LC44 family, featuring 16 KB (8K x 16) of OTP program memory, 454 bytes of RAM, 33 digital I/O lines, and a maximum clock speed of 8 MHz, all housed in a 40-pin PDIP (DIP-40, 0.600-inch wide plastic DIP) through-hole package. It executes 58 single-word instructions at a 121 ns single-cycle instruction time (excluding 2-cycle branches and table reads/writes), making it one of the highest-throughput 8-bit cores of its generation and a strong fit for cost-sensitive, deterministic control loops.
A microcontroller (MCU) is a single-chip computer that integrates a CPU core, program memory, working RAM, and peripheral interfaces on one die. The PIC17LC44 belongs to the PIC17 high-performance family - one rung below the PIC18 and far above the baseline PIC10/12/16 architectures in terms of interrupt handling, linear addressing, and peripheral richness. PIC17 was Microchip's first architecture to offer a true 16-bit program word with an 8-bit data path, giving it a balance of code density and ALU speed that suited industrial control and instrumentation in the mid-1990s onward. The 'LC' suffix denotes the low-voltage CMOS variant, which is the direct 2.5 V to 5.5 V descendant of the original 5 V-only PIC17C44 OTP device.
Key features include 33 bidirectional I/O pins grouped into up to five ports, an asynchronous UART/USART, 16 capture/compare/PWM timer channels, two 8-bit timers plus one 16-bit timer, brown-out reset, watchdog timer, and a 10-bit ADC. The 8 MHz external clock combined with the 4-clock-per-instruction-cycle pipeline yields an 8 MIPS peak throughput, which is notably faster than contemporary 8-bit cores from competing vendors in the same era. Industrial temperature grade (-40C to +85C) is guaranteed by the '-I' suffix.
Architecturally, the PIC17LC44 uses a Harvard memory layout with a 16-bit program bus and 8-bit data bus; this asymmetry is precisely why it carries an 8-bit CPU label while still shipping 8K x 16 of program storage. The LC revision added a wider supply tolerance (2.5 V to 5.5 V) and lower static current than the original PIC17C44, enabling battery-friendly operation without sacrificing interrupt latency. The OTP program memory - one-time programmable - means firmware is locked at production time, which is acceptable for high-volume industrial SKUs.
Typical applications include industrial process controllers, motor control drivers, HVAC system nodes, security alarm panels, instrumentation front-ends, point-of-sale terminals, and embedded control boards that benefit from the 33 I/O count and PWM-rich timers. The wide 2.5 V to 5.5 V supply range also allows direct battery operation on 3 V lithium or 3.3 V regulated rails, which is unusual for 1990s-era PIC17 silicon.
When designing with this device, plan firmware around the Harvard boundary: constants must be placed via table-read instructions rather than as ordinary data, and the 16-bit program word must be respected when computing flash/ROM budgets. The 454-byte RAM is tight; large buffers should be placed in external memory or be selected with care. The 40-pin PDIP footprint is friendly to breadboards and through-hole rework, but new designs should evaluate PIC18F or dsPIC33 equivalents for migration paths.
This page synthesizes distributor pricing, drop-in alternative listings, pin-by-pin compatibility notes, and practical design guidance that goes beyond what the original Microchip datasheet provides, including cross-package considerations and modern cross-brand guidance where applicable.
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