http://www.ucpros.com/Newsletter.htm

Do you have a friend or colleague with an interest in microcontrollers? Let them know about

our free Embedded News Digest.

Also be sure to check out our new resource section with useful links and books about microcontrollers and embedded systems.

This month's issue:

Atmel Pre-Qualifies CAN Flash Microcontrollers for Extended Temperature Range

Hitachi Performance Improved SH-4 Controllers

Infineon Announces New Microcontroller Family

Microchip Releases Technical Library CD ROM 2002
Motorola Launches PowerQUICC III Communications Processor

NEC 32-bit Microcontroller for Automotive Applications

STMicroelectronics Develops DSP-based Digital AM/FM Radio Chipset That Directly Digitizes Intermediate Frequency

TI Expands Its Low-Power MSP430 Portfolio With a $0.49 Device

TI $10000.- Microcontroller Design Contest

About MicroController Pros Corporation

Atmel Pre-Qualifies CAN Flash Microcontrollers for Extended Temperature Range

Atmel Corporation announced  the successful pre-qualification of its 8051 based CANary(TM) microcontrollers for automotive temperature range and quality requirements.

T89C51CC01 (32-KB Flash) and T89C51CC02 (16-KB Flash, low pin count) in automotive temperature range are available for sampling now. A 64 KB Flash version will be introduced later. Full automotive-grade qualification is planned by 2002 year-end.
 

On-chip peripheral include: 16-bit timers, serial channels, 10-bit/8-channel analog/digital converter, programmable counter arrays, interrupt handling, power saving modes. The microcontrollers operate between 2.7V to 5V over the extended -40 to +125 degree Celsius automotive temperature range.

CANary devices support self-programming code flash memory and data EEPROM. By executing the C51 code located in the boot flash memory, users can update the code or data in flash and EEPROM in-application. Code/Data can be updated either through the UART or the CAN bus.

Hitachi Performance Improved SH-4 Controllers

Hitachi announced two new SH-4 processors that offer higher frequency and a new cache architecture.

The SH7751R offers an integrated PCI controller while the SH7750R has a 64-bit SDRAM interface which provides a large memory bandwidth of up to 120MHz resulting in SDRAM access at a peak of 960Mbyte/s. Both offer higher performance (430MIPS/1.7Gflops) and higher frequency (240MHz) than existing SH-4 devices.

The devices are suitable for multimedia applications, car information systems and low-cost networking applications. They  provide full software and pin compatibility to older SH-4 devices. The new devices feature a superscalar architecture, full floating point engine, SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) acceleration for 3D and DSP, and 16-bit fixed instruction length for low memory footprint.

Infineon Announces New Microcontroller Family

The new AUDO-NG family is based on Infineon's TriCore  architecture, which combines microcontroller with digital signal processor (DSP) capabilities in a single core. The new microcontroller chips are targeted for for engine and transmission control systems. Initially there will be three 32-bit microcontrollers; the TC1766 and the TC1796, both of which are based on the TriCore 1.3 architecture, and the TC2700, which uses the TriCore 2 architecture and will be capable of clock speeds up to 400 MHz.
 

As usual with Infineon press announcements, which are typically 1..2 years ahead of actual product availability, it's very fuzzy on the technical details, quote:

"The TC1766 is developed for use in cost-optimized engine and transmission control systems. It offers clock speeds in the 80 MHz range, 1.5 MByte embedded Flash, as well as a powerful peripheral set tailored to the requirements of standard powertrain applications.
 

The TC1796 operates at clock speeds up to 150 MHz and incorporates 2 MByte embedded Flash. Compared with the TC1766, it boasts an expanded peripheral set capable of meeting all the requirements of even the most complex engine management systems.
 

The TC2700 represents a dramatic clock speed and overall performance upgrade in microcontrollers for innovative drive system applications. Designed to deliver maximum computing power for complex algorithmic tasks, the TC2700 is based on TriCore 2.0 core architecture, which supports clock speeds up to 400 MHz. System designers are expected to use the TC2700 in parallel with a TC1796 or TC1766. The TC2700 exchanges information with the TC1766 or TC1796 in real-time via the multiprocessor interface. "

Microchip Releases Technical Library CD ROM 2002

Microchip Technology announces availability of its updated Technical Library CD-ROM 2002, a two CD-ROM set. Disk One includes documentation on the company’s PICmicro microcontrollers, non-volatile memory devices, analog/interface products, KEELOQ authentication devices, RFID devices, rfPIC radio frequency devices and the new dsPIC Digital Signal Controller product line. Disk Two contains a full-line of Microchip’s applications notes and related source code, development tools and utilities.

Motorola Launches PowerQUICC III Communications Processor

PowerQUICC III is based on a PowerPC e500 core and features an enhanced Communications Processor Module (CPM), RapidIO interconnect technology, Motorola’s OCeaN crossbar switch fabric, dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, and support for Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM) and PCI-X. The MPC8560 offers significant performance increases, with core speeds of up to 1 GHz and Communication Processor Module speeds of up to 333 MHz.

The MPC8560 integrates a large 256KB on-chip memory array. Providing versatile options for customer design needs, the memory array is designed to support 8-way set associative L2 cache operation and/or memory mapped SRAM operation.

NEC 32-bit Microcontroller for Automotive Applications

After the big "Jupiter" (see our May News Digest), comes the smaller "Venus".

With memory sizes from 128 Kbyte to 256 Kbyte (Flash) respectively 96 Kbyte to 256 Kbyte (Mask) and alternatively one or two CAN channels Venus is targeted at various automotive control applications.  The 32-bit V850ES CPU coreoffers a  performance of 20 MIPS at 16 MHz. Venus features an A/D converter (12 x 10 bit), timer unit (three 16-bit-timers, three 8-bit-timers, watchdog timer and watch timer), serial interfaces (2 x CSI, 2 x UART) and 84 I/O lines. Supply voltage range of 4.0 to 5.5V. Temperatures from -40 to +85 (+105) degrees. 100-pin QFP package (14 mm x 14 mm).

STMicroelectronics Develops DSP-based Digital AM/FM Radio Chipset That Directly Digitizes Intermediate Frequency

STMicroelectronics  announced that the company is sampling a new AM/FM radio receiver chipset that digitizes directly the 10.7MHz intermediate frequency.
 

The new chipset consists of the TDA7515 analog front-end chip, realized in  0.7-micron BiCMOS technology and the TDA7580 digital AM/FM IF sampling processor, realized in 0.18-micron CMOS. The DSP software embedded in the TDA7580 implements  algorithms that have been jointly developed by ST and Bose Corporation.

The TDA7515 and TDA7580 come in 44- and 64-lead TQFP packages, respectively. Performing most functions digitally and integrating a hardware decoder for Radio Data System (RDS) in the TDA7580 result in very few external components. The embedded RDS decoder unloads the DSP from RDS decoding tasks.

Samples of the TDA7515 and TDA7580 are available now and volume production is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2002.

TI Expands Its Low-Power  16-bit MSP430 Portfolio With a $0.49 Device

The new MSP430C1101 includes 1kB of ROM, 128 bytes of RAM, a watchdog timer, 3-channel multi-function 16-bit pulse-width modulation (PWM) Timer_A and an analog comparator that supports high-precision analog-to-digital conversion for cost sensitive applications.  The MSP430C1101 also offers vectored interrupt capability on every I/O pin supporting event- driven operation. For very cost sensitive applications the device can operate from the digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) with no external components.

The device has a power consumption as low as 0.7 micro-amps (uA) in standby mode and 1.3 micro-amps active. The new MSP430C1101 is available for $0.49 in high-volume and is 100 percent compatible with all existing MSP430 family members.

For development, a $49 Flash Emulation Tool (FET) MSP-FET430X110 is available. The FET supports real-time in-system development accessing the Flash devices embedded emulation capability. The tool comes complete with a JTAG interface target board and Flash devices as well as a complete integrated development environment (IDE) including a debugger, assembler/linker and 4kB IAR C-Compiler.

Related Flash and ROM MSP430x11x1 family devices are listed below:

*Price quoted in lots of 10ku for Flash and 100ku or greater for ROM

TI $10000.- Microcontroller Design Contest

TI is having a microcontroller design contest for their MSP430 family together with the Nuts & Volts magazine. The contest runs until October 31st 2002

Texas Instruments will award a total of $10,000 (USD):
• 1st place winner receives $5,500
• 2nd place winner receives $3,000
• 3rd place winner receives $1,500

Details at: http://www.ti.com/gadgetorama2002

[Home] [Search] [MicroControllerShop] [Publications] [Embedded News Digest] [Resources] [Contents] [Contact Us]

Email us with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2002-2008 MicroController Pros Corporation
Last modified: 12/16/08