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Dear Reader, welcome to this month's edition of MicroController Pros Corporation's Embedded News Digest, your source for microcontroller and embedded system news.
This month's issue:Call for Papers: Embedded World Nuernberg, GermanyCirrus Logic: ARM9 Controller for Networked Media ApplicationsCypress: With Wireless USB Against BluetoothElan Announces New Telecom MicroMicrochip Expands PIC18 FamilyNational Semiconductor Finalizes Sale of Embedded Geode Processor Family to AMDPhilips USB Interface DevicesTexas Instruments: New MSP430 Microcontrollers with Analog Front-EndZiLOG Releases Royalty-Free TCP/IP StackCall for Papers: Embedded World Nuernberg, GermanyThe Embedded World Congress is from February 17th-19th at the Messezentrum Nuernberg, Germany. Technical papers (no marketing or PR articles) are sought in the areas of: communication technologies, embedded design flow, tools & debugging, software development, software security, embedded internet & networking, sensors, embedded O/S, new architectures and peripherals. Submissions should consists of: title of paper; author's name; author's mail and email address; telephone and fax number; and a maximum 3 page abstract. Abstracts should be submitted by the deadline of September 12th 2003 to:
Cirrus Logic: ARM9 Controller for Networked Media ApplicationsThe EP9312 is an ARM920T-based controller. The ARM920T microprocessor core with separate 16 Kbyte, 64-way, set-associative instruction and data caches is augmented by the MaverickCrunch™ coprocessor. The EP9312's MaverickCrunch engine is an advanced mixed-mode math coprocessor that greatly accelerates the single- and double-precision integer and floating-point processing capabilities of the ARM core. The MaverickCrunch engine allows the EP9312 to offer speed and performance when encoding digital audio and video formats, processing data via Ethernet, and performing other math-intensive computing and data-processing functions. Features:
Cypress: With Wireless USB Against BluetoothCypress announced that it has begun sampling WirelessUSB LS devices that can communicate at distances of up to 10 meters using the 2.4GHz ISM band. With WirelessUSB LS, Cypress uses its own DSSS coding scheme and targets the devices at USB peripherals with low data rate requirements, such as keyboards, mice, and video game controllers. WirelessUSB LS is available as a transceiver or a transmit-only device, providing bi-directional or unidirectional RF transmission at 62.5 kbit/s. Both devices have a typical standby current of 1 mA. Looking at how many years it took to get Bluetooth into applications, it will be interesting to see how successful Cypress will be with penetrating the market with its proprietary wireless solution and how willing consumers and manufacturers will be to put yet another wireless interface into PCs besides IEEE802.11 and Bluetooth. Elan Announces New Telecom MicroElan announced the launch of a new telecom microcontroller, the EM78P815, beginning of October 2003. The new micro integrates a FSK/DTMF transceiver, a CAS block for call waiting function, current D/A for ring music, 256k internal data ROM and a SPI interface. The EM78P815 can address up to 128k external program ROM in addition to the 64k internal program ROM and up to 64K external flash memory. Microchip Expands PIC18F FamilyThe new PIC18F8525/6525 and PIC18F8621/6621 microcontrollers are available in 64- and 80-pin TQFP packages and feature either 48 or 64 Kbytes of Flash memory, 4 Kbytes of RAM memory and 1024 bytes of high-endurance EEPROM data memory. The peripheral set includes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with up to 16 channels x 10-bit resolution, 2 Capture/Compare/PWM modules, 3 Enhanced Capture/Compare/PWM modules, up to 10 MIPS performance at 10 MHz, two 8-bit timers, three 16-bit timers and one watch-dog timer (WDT), dual analog comparators and a parallel slave port (PSP). Additional features include an operating voltage range of 2.0-5.5 volts, programmable brown-out detection/reset (PBOR), programmable 16-level Low Voltage Detection module (PLVD), 32 kHz secondary oscillator clock input and a 4x phase lock loop (PLL) for high-frequency oscillators. Serial I/O features include SPI™, I2C™, and two LIN compatible addressable USART modules. National Semiconductor Finalizes Sale of Embedded Geode Processor Family to AMDNational Semiconductor has finalized the sale of its Geode x86 embedded processor line to AMD for undisclosed terms. This step ends National's stint in the 80x86 market. The Geode family is the embedded version of the Cyrix MII/III processor design targeted at set-top boxes and information appliances. National sold Cyrix to Taiwanese chipset manufacturer VIA some years back after unsuccessfully trying to compete with Intel and AMD in the PC market, but retained property rights in and continued to develop the embedded version of the Cyrix design, which was renamed to Geode. Philips USB Interface DevicesNot a microcontroller, but an interesting peripheral for some applications: The Philips ISP1582/83 USB interface devices have a unique and patented power supply circuit, which allows customers to add 12Mbps USB peripheral capability without placing heavy power requirements on the end product. The ISP1582 draws power from both the USB cable and the product's power supply. Therefore, while competitive low-power USB peripheral solutions draw approximately 85 mA from a system's power supply, Philips ISP1582/83 consumes only 45mA with less than 4mA required from the power supply of the end product. The device power supply and corresponding input / output logic thresholds have been designed for 1.8 volts. The package pinout features 32 pins in a 5 mm x 5 mm package, with an 8-bit, general-purpose parallel microcontroller interface. Texas Instruments: New MSP430 Microcontrollers with Analog Front-EndTargeted at electronic metering applications, the new MSP430FE42x family integrates an embedded signal processor (ESP), ideal for single phase e-meters, plus the following key features to perform the energy metrology functions:
The converted line voltage and current signals are digitally processed, providing: energy and line period measurement; negative power flow indication; peak voltage and current; phase and line-to-neutral current comparisons for tamper detection. With precise phase matching between current and voltage channels, the ESP performs the necessary calculations to supply accurate active energy, apparent energy, RMS voltage, current and waveform samples. The ESP provides a 0.1 percent accurate energy measurement over a dynamic current range of 1000 to 1. The family also includes standard MSP430 peripherals such as:
an enhanced watchdog timer; Supporting ultra-low power, the MSP430FE42x operates at 3V with the CPU and ESP active at only 2.5mA. The device can operate in a standby mode with a typical current consumption of 1.1uA with a real-time-clock function active. The MSP430FE42x family offers 8kB, 16kB or 32kB on-chip Flash memory options and 256B to 1kB RAM. The family is offered in a 64-pin quad flat package (QFP) and is available for preproduction and engineering evaluation now with full production planned for late 2003. The 8kB MSP430FE423 is priced at $2.95 per unit in 100,000-piece quantities. ZiLOG Releases Royalty-Free TCP/IP StackRoyalty-Free TCP/IP Stacks seem to become the norm. After an open-source TCP/IP stack for the Atmel AVR family, 8051 and PIC are already available for some time, ZiLOG now announced the availability of a free stack for its eZ80Acclaim! product family. The new protocol stack supports TCP, UDP, IP, ARP, RARP, ICMP, IGMP, PPP, Ethernet, HTTP, SMTP, DHCP/BOOTP, SNMP, TFTP, TELNET, and TIMEP protocols. It includes enhancements such as SNMPv1 support and other user-extensible MIBs. Registered ZiLOG customers can download the stack for free directly from ZiLOG's Web site. About MicroController Pros CorporationµCPros provides consultancy and outsourcing services in: |
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