The PL485 is a fully programmable Power Line Communication (PLC) System On Chip (SOC). It is able to run any narrowband-PLC (NB-PLC) protocol in the frequency band up to 500 kHz. By means of selecting the proper firmware, the PL485 is able to support applications requiring basic connectivity (point to point, star) or complex PLC networks (mesh topologies with routing).

Microchip provides firmware examples for basic PLC connectivity, as well as implementations of state-of-the-art PLCprotocols such as ITU-T G.9903 (G3-PLC®) and ITU-T G.9904 (PRIME®). The PL485 is a future-proof SOC able to support the evolution of the implemented NB-PLC standards.

• Embedded NB-PLC modem
• PLC front-end integrated, including PGA and digital transmission level control
• High performance, programmable engine dedicated to PLC PHY and MAC real-time tasks with dedicated SRAM memory
• Cryptographic engine supporting AES 128, 192, 256
• Modem secure boot implemented, comprising PLC binary authentication (AES-128 CMAC) and decryption (AES-128 CBC)
• Communication stacks and full support for G3-PLC, PRIME v1.3 and PRIME v1.4 provided
• Fully programmable, standard ARM® 32-bit Cortex®-M4 core running the upper protocol layers and user application
• ARM Cortex-M4 with up to 16 Kbytes SRAM on I/D bus providing 0 wait state execution at up to 100 MHz
• Memory Protection Unit (MPU)
• DSP Instructions
• Floating Point Unit (FPU)
• Thumb®-2 instruction set