As the pace of flash introductions picks up, Ernest Villicana, vice president of strategic marketing for Microchip Technology Inc. (Chandler, Ariz.), sees his company's "major investments" in that technology paying off. Recent introductions from Microchip include the feature-rich 1k x 14-bit PIC16F627 ($2.98 each in lots of 1,000) and 2k x 14-bit PIC16F628 ($3.24 in similar quantities), each touting a 4-MHz internal clock, precision voltage comparator, high-speed USART and capture-compare-PWM module. Both sport 18-pin packages.