The PIC24F GA3 family represents Microchip’s continued advancements in XLP technology. These devices provide significant improvement in the active current of Microchip’s low power devices. By addressing a combination of process, system architecture and design issues, these devices achieve active currents of 150µA/MHz. This is one of the lowest active currents of a 16-bit Flash device. Also, to counter the very large gap between the sleep modes and the deep sleep modes of operation, these devices incorporate a new sleep mode that allows the device to wake up more quickly and operate from the next instruction. In this low voltage sleep mode users are able to retain the RAM contents with as low as 330nA. Another key feature of the GA310 devices is the ability to back up the RTCC from a separate supply pin with the V_BAT functionality on the device. When supplied with power through the V_BAT pin, the RTCC on the device can maintain the time with 400nA. Finally, these devices have six channels of DMA to off load many of the peripheral communication tasks. This can allow the CPU to either slow down, reducing power, or to perform more critical operation in the system. Beyond power improvements the GA3 family also provides the PIC18 segmented LCD customers with a path to 16-bit. With a segment count of 60 and x8 common drive capability, the LCD drive capability is increased on these devices. This also allows the MCU to drive 480 LCD Segment, or fewer segments with fewer pins.