The Core Independent Peripherals or CIPs integrated by Microchip in its microcontrollers are intended to accomplish tasks in hardware and free-up the CPU to let it do something else or to let it sleep. But the CIP movement thinks that things should be taken much further. Indeed, with enough CIPs of the right functionality the CPU could sleep all the time, and could even be left off the chip altogether, according to a CIP spokesman, who added that this would greatly simplify firmware development and decrease the time needed for debugging.

The spokesman continued with the example of a computing A/D converter capable of controlling data-acquisition and signal-analysis functions completely independent of the CPU. “Why waste thousands of transistors on a lazy CPU that spends most of its time sleeping if you can build an honest, hard-working ADC² [ed.: “square”, not “footnote”] instead?” Some might argue that he has a point there.

Although now also supported by the new “K40” family of PIC18F devices, the CIP movement is not new; the PIC16F170X/171X family created in 2014 already had contacts with early CIP activists.