September 2002 Newsletter
 

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This month's issue:

Altera: Over 100 Embedded Processor Cores Royalty Free for Use with Cyclone FPGA Family

ARM Continues Rapid Expansion of Licensee Base

Atmel Adds FPSLIC Support to AVR Starter Kit

EM Microelectronic: General Purpose Micro in 8-pin TSSOP

Hitachi: Low-Power H8 FLASH Micro

Infineon Secure Microcontroller Chips Used in U.S. Department of Defense Smart Card Program

Micronas 7 Stepper Motors Dashboard Controller

Motorola Gives Away 4000 Free Starter Kits for New Nitron HC08Q Family of FLASH Microcontrollers

Motorola Expands HC08 LIN Bus Portfolio

Motorola FLASH Microcontroller with USB and RF Capabilities

Philips Introduces 80C51X2 Family with 50% Less Power Consumption and Higher Performance

Sharp Introduces High Performance, 8-bit BlueStreak (8051) Microcontroller

TI 600MHZ Media Processor

TI MSP430 Technical Conference in Dallas

 

Altera: Over 100 Embedded Processor Cores Royalty Free for Use with Cyclone FPGA Family

Altera Corporation  announced the launch of the Embedded Processor Portfolio, a collection of more than 100 embedded processor intellectual property (IP) cores targeting typical microcontroller and embedded processor applications. Developers can design and ship systems with the Embedded Processor Portfolio cores without paying any license or royalty fees. The Embedded Processor Portfolio supports Altera's new Cyclon device family.

 

Cyclone devices are FPGAs with densities ranging from 2,910 to 20,060 logic elements. Cyclone devices feature up to 288 Kbits of embedded memory and are based on a 1.5-V all-layer-copper SRAM process. They offer up to two phase-locked loops (PLLs) per device and a hierarchical clocking structure for extensive on- and off-chip clock management.

 

ARM Continues Rapid Expansion of Licensee Base.

ARM continues to expand its growing base of licensees. If you lost track the following companies acquired a license for the ARM core over the last three months: Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, Matsushita, Stepmind, Neomagic, Shanghai HuaHong Integrated Circuit Co., Canadian Microelectronics Corporation (CMC), Thomson Multimedia, Agere, Flextronics, LG Electronics, OKI, Chartered Semiconductor.

 

With both TSMC and Chartered now being ARM foundry program partners, customers of those companies can gain  access to ARM based IP.

 

CMC will provide design kits to over 30 Canadian Universities as part of the new Canadian System-On-Chip research network.

 

Shanghai HuaHong Integrated Circuit Co, is leading developer of smart card technology in China

 

Atmel Adds FPSLIC Support to AVR Starter Kit

Atmel announced the availability of the STK 594, a low-cost add-on board that supports the FPSLIC Product Family. Atmel's AVR-based FPSLIC components integrate a 20+ MIPS 8-bit AVR microcontroller with a 5,000 to 40,000 gate FPGA, up to 36 K-bytes of SRAM, and peripherals. FPSLIC devices provide programmable logic and an AVR microcontroller on a single chip. The STK594 add-on board plugs directly into an AVR STK500 development board, creating a low cost FPSLIC development environment.

 

Atmel's STK594 FPSLIC development kit is available now, priced at $149. The STK500 AVR Development Kit is available with a list price of $79.00

 

EM Microelectronic: General Purpose Micro in 8-pin TSSOP

The new EM6680 microcontroller contains a 4-bit (!) A/D,  3KB mask ROM, RAM, internal RC oscillator with metal optional selectable frequency between 32kHz and 800kHz, power on reset, watchdog timer, 10-bit up/down counter/timer (PWM), prescaler, supply voltage level detector, serial interface, compare input, frequency output, and several clock functions. The EM6680’s primary features include: Low supply voltage: 1.2 to 3.6V; low power consumption: 4 uA in active mode, 3.5 uA in standby mode, 0.18 uA in sleep mode at 3V, 32kHz; sleep counter reset: Wakes microcontroller from sleep mode, and includes four selectable timings.

 

Hitachi: Low-Power H8 FLASH Micro

Hitachi announced the H8/38024F, a low-cost, power-efficient device that expands the Super-Low-Power (SLP) family.  For extended battery life the chip operates over a wide supply range: 2.7 to 3.6V for a flash version and 1.8 to 5.5V for a mask ROM version. Features dual oscillators (10MHz and 32kHz) and 8 power saving modes.  The device integrates 32kB FLASH, 1k RAM, a 32 segment*4 backplanes LCD controller and driver, six 8-bit/16-bit timers, 8 channel 10-bit A/D, 2 channel 10-bit PWM (D/A) outputs. 32k and 24k ROM versions are also available. 80pin QFP and TQFP packages. 10k unit pricing: FLASH: $4.75, 32k ROM:$1.95, 24k ROM:$1.80
 

Infineon Secure Microcontroller Chips Used in U.S. Department of Defense Smart Card Program

Infineon  announced that its secure microcontroller chips are used in the one million smart cards issued to date in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Common Access Card program. The Infineon chip acts as the central processor, or computer "brain," of the plastic smart cards that DoD began rolling out in October 2001 to provide approximately four million civilian and military employees and certain contractors with a single standard means of physical identification, building access and computer network access. The chip has advanced security capabilities built-in, such as support for Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

 

The DoD's Common Access Card program specifies smart card technology that is based on the open-Java platform and meets the stringent requirements of Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-1/140-2 Level 2 certification. This provides both high-level security capability and the flexibility for the DoD to add additional application programs to the smart card in the future.

 

Micronas 7 Stepper Motors Dashboard Controller

Micronas launched  the CDC 3207G and CDC 3272G dashboard microcontrollers capable of driving up to seven stepper motors for car instrumentation. The chips integrate the 16/32-bit ARM7TDMI RISC processor core.

 

The CDC 3207G offers three, the CDC 3272G two on-chip high speed CAN modules (V.2.0B) which support all 32 message objects (512 Byte RAM). The CDC 3207G dashboard controller has a 512 KB Flash memory, 32 KB RAM and 8 KB special function ROM. The CDC 3272G is a pin and software compatible mask ROM version. It features a 384 KB mask ROM, a 12 KB RAM and an 8 KB special function ROM. Additionally, there are two UARTs, two SPI, two I˛C, a graphic bus and integrated LCD controller for 192 segments (48*4). -40C...+105C temperature range. Package: PQFP128. Samples available now, volume shipment Q1/2003.

 

Motorola Gives Away 4000 Free Starter Kits for New Nitron HC08Q Family of FLASH Microcontrollers

The  family includes six derivatives (68HC908QT1, T2,T4 and Y1,Y2,Y4) that are now available in small 8- and 16-pin packages. Devices start at $0.70 in 10k quantities.

 

The T1 (8-pin) and Y1 (16-pin) have 1.5k FLASH, 128 RAM and two 16-bit multi-function timers.

The T2/Y2 add a 4 channel 8-bit A/D to the feature set and the T4/Y4 increase program memory to 4k FLASH.

 

Motorola is also giving away 4000 demo boards for free, while supplies last. The board comes with all you need to begin code development with members of the Nitron HC08 Q-Family. It is available complete with Metrowerks CodeWarrior™ Development Studio Special Edition for HC08 to modify demo code or to develop new code using assembler or C. The demonstration board is engineered to allow for real-time source-level debugging of your code and programming of the device's Flash memory, all with no additional hardware. Order here.
 

Motorola Expands HC08 LIN Bus Portfolio

The new MCUs are qualified to full automotive industry standards, including high temperature, shock, vibration and humidity. With a variety of memory and peripheral options, these devices are designed to act as "slave"  or "master" controllers for a range of in-vehicle communications and networking needs for numerous body electronics and powertrain applications.

 

The 68HC908EY family of LIN slave MCUs features: 4k-16k ROM or FLASH, up to 256 bytes RAM, on-chip R/C oscillator, enhancehd serial communciations interface (SCI) that allows LIN break detection and synchronization byte measurement capability without the use of an external timer channel, up to 8-channels of 10-bit A/D, two 16-bit dual channel timers and a serial peripheral interface (SPI). Small 32-pin QFP package. 10k pricing: $4.70 for 68HC908EY16

 

The 68HC908GZ is a family of dedicated LIN master MCUs features: up to 60k ROM/FLASH, enhanced SCI, up to 12 channels 10-bit A/D, SPI.10k pricing for 68HC908GZ16: $3.50

 

Motorola also offers the 68HC(9)08AZ family of LIN master MCUs,  with a CAN module, complemented by the 16-bit HC9S12 family for high-performance LIN master node applications. See also our March 2002 newsletter: Motorola 68HC08 microcontrollers with LIN Bus support

 

Motorola FLASH Microcontroller with USB and RF Capabilities

The new 8-bit 68HC908JB16 is designed specifically for products such as keyboards, mice, RF wireless receivers, USB converters, and USB security keys. The device features dual phase locked loop (PLL) clock generators for 27 MHz RF transmissions used in wireless PC peripherals. The dual-PLL design also allows two channels to receive signals simultaneously. Each PLL is fully programmable and allows to select one of 5 RF channels to minimize device interference. The 68HC908JB16 supports Universal Serial Bus Specification Rev 1.1 and Rev 2.0 Low-Speed Functions. The device has 16kB of FLASH, integrated 3.3V regulator, two 16-bit multi-function timers, UART, watchdog, low voltage inhibit with selectable trip point and operates from 4V...5.5V. The device is in-system-programmable via the USB interface.

Available now for $2.95 in 10k quantities.

 

Philips Introduces 80C51X2 Family with 50% Less Power Consumption and Higher Performance

The new 80C51X2 family of microcontrollers support both 6-clock and 12-clock operation, and performs over a wide operating range of 2.7V to 5.5V with up to 50% less power consumption when compared to the original 12 clock 80C51 family. By supporting 6-clock operation to an oscillator frequency of 30MHz, the 80C51X2 performance range is extended to approximately twice the original 80C51 maximum performance.

 

The family of 80C51X2 is suitable for a wide range of applications and consists of 14 microcontrollers which includes romless devices and devices with up to 32K Flash, One Time Programmable (OTP) or ROM memory.

 

Sharp Introduces High Performance, 8-bit BlueStreak (8051) Microcontroller
If Philips' 2x performance boost for 8051 isn't enough for you check out Sharp's BlueStreak. Their LZ87010 two clock per instruction cycle, 8051 compatible design gives a six time performance boost over standard 8051 products. Max. clock frequency is 40MHz (vs Philips' 30MHz). Device features 64k FLASH, 4.25k RAM, 8 channel 12-bit A/D, two DACs each with 128 byte waveform generator RAMs, six 16-bit multifunction timers, watchdog, realtime clock, two UARTs and I2C interfaces. Comes in a 100pin LQFP package. Samples now, production in Q1/2003.

 

TI 600MHZ Media Processor

The new 600MHz TMS320DM642 is fully object code compatible with TI´s C64x generation of DSPs, while also offering on-chip integrated, high-definition (HD)-capable video ports, glueless Ethernet, multi-channel audio and 66-Mhz PCI connectivity. The DM642 at 600MHz is capable of processing up to four simultaneous MPEG2 video decodes with D1 (720x480) resolution, at 30 frames per second. The DM642 is also capable of full Main-Profile-at-Main-Level (MP@ML) MPEG-2 video encoding in real time. Software for MPEG2 encoding/decoding is available as well as a range of algorithms via TI's third party network (MPEG4, MP3, Windows Media 9 and RealVideo/Audio 9 to name just a few).

 

Samples in Q1/2003, volume production in Q3/2003.

 

TI MSP430 Technical Conference in Dallas

TI will hold a 2.5 day conference with lab-intensive hands-on training on the MSP430 in Dallas, Texas from November 12-14 2002. Cost $499.- For more info and to register: www.ti.com/sc02247

 

Announcement also talks about "sneak preview" of a new MSP430 controller, the MSP430F16xx with DMA, I2C and dual DACs.

 

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