Developing USB Applications with Microchip

Microchip supplies a full portfolio of USB enabling products. Included are devices, hubs, transceivers, and power controllers.

Microchip offers a wide range of USB capable MCUs.

Microchip USB MCUs

A number of Microchip MCUs have a USB peripheral on-board. Combined with Microchip's supplied middleware (such as Harmony or the Microchip Libraries for Applications (MLA) described below), these MCUs can provide both the main CPU for an application plus the USB connectivity.

The following table shows the basic capabilities of Microchip's USB PIC® MCUs. A selector guide showing which MCUs support USB can be found on the New/Popular USB Products page.

USB Mode PIC16F1 PIC18 PIC24 dsPIC PIC32MM PIC32MX PIC32MZ
Device ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Host ✘ ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Full Speed ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
High Speed ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✔

MLA

The MLA software framework is used for the following device families:

  • PIC16F1
  • PIC18
  • PIC24
  • dsPIC
  • PIC32MM

It enhances inter-operability for applications that need to use more than one library. Once you download the MLA, you can select the projects that you need for your application. In addition to the source code, this software package includes drivers, demos, documentation, and utilities.

MPLAB® Harmony

The MPLAB Harmony software framework is used for the following device families:

  • PIC32MX
  • PIC32MZ

This flexible firmware development platform for PIC32 microcontrollers provides driver libraries and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that make it easier for you to use PIC32 peripherals (Timers, General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO), Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART), I²C, Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), etc.). It also includes middleware libraries for USB (Host and Device), TCP/IP (Ethernet and WiFi®), Graphics, Bluetooth®, and others.

A tutorial on using MPLAB Harmony for USB can be found in the "MPLAB Harmony v2 USB Library Overview" article.

MLA and MPLAB Harmony Download Links

Tool ‍ About Installers
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Installation
Instructions
‍ Windows ‍ Linux ‍ Mac OSX
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MLA
Microchip Libraries for Applications
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MPLAB® Harmony 1.xx
Integrated Software Framework
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MPLAB® Harmony 2.xx
Integrated Software Framework
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