New from Exar are the XRA120x I²C/SMBus and XRA140x SPI GPIO expander product families – a total of 12 device offerings. The GPIO (general purpose input/output) expander products enable straightforward serial expansion of I/O through an industry-standard I²C, SMBus or SPI interface. GPIO products can provide additional control and monitoring when the microcontroller or chipset has an insufficient number of I/O pins or in systems where serial communication and control from a remote location is advantageous.