September 2004 Embedded News Digest
 

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Dear Reader,
welcome to the September 2004 edition of  MicroController Pros Corporation's Embedded News Digest, your source for microcontroller and embedded system news.
 

  • New product additions at the MicroControllerShop:

    Books: New additions on Embedded Linux, CAN, TCP/IP & Embedded Internet, TI MSP430, 8051, Windows XP Embedded

    Microchip: New prototyping boards with ICSP connector for 18,28, and 40 pin PICs


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This month's issue:

ARM and Sun Microsystems To Deliver Pre-Integrated Java Solutions For Mobile Devices

Atmel: Five New Low Power AVR Flash Microcontrollers

Freescale: High-Performance Dual Core Controller with 4 GBit MACs

Freescale: Four New PowerQUICC Controllers with GBit Ethernet

Fujitsu: New 8-bit Microcontroller Family Runs at 100ns

Infineon: New 16-bit Micros with 256k FLASH, New Tricore 32-bit Micro

Microchip: Eight New PIC Micros With LCD Controller

Microchip: Two New dsPIC Micros with 66k FLASH, 12-bit A/D and CAN

Microchip: New PIC18 FLASH Micros in 28- and 40/44 Pin Packages

Renesas: SuperH™ Family SH7080 with 80MHz and 512k Flash

TI: 2004 MSP430 Developers Conference in Dallas, Munich & Beijing

Zilog: Higher Pin-Count and More ROM Memory for Remote Controls


ARM and Sun Microsystems To Deliver Pre-Integrated Java Solutions For Mobile Devices

ARM and Sun announced that they will jointly optimize and integrate software that enables the ARM® Jazelle® Java hardware acceleration technology into Sun’s Connected Limited Device Configuration HotSpot™ Implementation (CLDC HI), a Java Virtual Machine for resource-constrained mobile devices. The integrated product is expected to increase application execution speed and reduce application startup time by up to 50% compared to the current version of CLDC HI; other enhancements will enable increased efficiency in power and memory consumption.

The integrated product will be distributed by Sun; commercial deployment of the integrated product will be subject to the separate licensing terms of Sun and ARM respectively.


Atmel: Five New Low Power AVR Flash Microcontrollers

The new Mega 165, Mega 325 and Mega 645 are housed in a 64 pin TQFP package and have 16, 32 and 64KB of Self -Programmable Flash Memory. The Mega 3250 and Mega 6450 are 32 and 64KB function compatible alternatives in a 100-pin package. The AVR provides various power management techniques including multiple sleep modes that allow designers to turn off unused peripherals and reduce power consumption up to 50%.

To simplify development the new parts are equipped with JTAG interface that enables on-chip debug and programming. A JTAG in-system programmer and debugger that work with Atmel's free AVR Studio integrated development environment starts below US$50.00

The first three devices are available now. The 10ku price of the Mega 165 is $3.25, Mega 325 is $3.95 and the Mega 3250 is $4.45. Availability of the 64KB family members is scheduled for 2Q05. The 10ku price of the Mega 645 is $4.45 and Mega 6450 is $4.95


Freescale: High-Performance Dual Core Controller with 4 GBit MACs

Freescale disclosed first architectural details of its coming, high-performance MPC8641D device, which integrates two PowerPC e600 cores and high-speed interfaces to achieve significant performance gains and system-level cost savings. Each e600 core is designed to deliver greater than 1.5 GHz performance. Two 1MB L2 caches and dual AltiVec™ vector processing engines provide additional performance acceleration. The MPC8641D device is designed to offer all this performance within a power range that is expected to be 15-25 Watts (typical).

To minimize chip-level bottlenecks, the MPC8641D processor offers low-latency access to its dual e600 cores through a high-bandwidth integrated MPX bus that is designed to scale to 667 MHz. In addition, the MPC8641D features an integrated dual memory controller that enables low-latency, high-bandwidth access to DDR and DDR2 memories.

The dual core processor includes a RapidIO® serial fabric interface for system connectivity-ideal for connecting MPC8641D processors and peripherals in high-performance distributed systems. The RapidIO ecosystem is more than 50 members strong and includes industry-leading embedded vendors who provide host processors, DSPs, communications processors, backplane interfaces, switches, systems, tools, operating systems and services.

The MPC8641D processor embeds four Ethernet media access controllers (MACs) that support 10/100Mbps and 1Gbps Ethernet. The MPC8641D also enables local legacy peripheral-to-host connectivity with support for PCI Express interfaces.


Freescale: Four New PowerQUICC Controllers with GBit Ethernet

Freescale unveiled four next-generation PowerQUICC III processors (e500 PowerPC core) with advanced features that specifically address the enterprise networking, telecom transmission and switching, 3G wireless infrastructure, storage and high-end imaging markets.

MPC8548E networking/telecom processor - Key features include 512KB L2 cache, integrated security engine, 64-bit DDR1/2 scaling to 667 MHz data rate, dual 32-bit PCI or 64-bit PCI-X, 4-bit Serial RapidIO® fabric technology and 4-bit PCI-Express (or single 8-bit PCI Express 1.0a), local bus IO interfaces, and four Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. The combination of these features makes this device an optimal communications processing solution for Ethernet-only or RapidIO interworking applications, such as enterprise networking, telecom transmission and switching and 3G wireless basestations. The security engine includes Kasumi algorithm acceleration, making the MPC8548E an good choice for enhancing security protocol processing in 2.5G and 3G wireless network infrastructure. 

MPC8547E storage processor - Key features include 512KB L2 cache, integrated security acceleration with Exclusive Or (XOR) capability, support for battery-backed 64-bit DDR1/2 scaling to 667 MHz data rate, 64-bit PCI-X, 8-bit PCI Express and four Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. The device's XOR acceleration enhances system performance by offloading the compute-intensive parity checks in small-medium business (SMB) and enterprise redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) storage applications.

MPC8545E imaging processor - Key features include 512KB L2 cache, 64-bit DDR1/2 scaling up to 533 MHz data rate, integrated security, dual 32-bit PCI/single 64-bit PCI, 4-bit PCI Express and two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. The MPC8545E also offers double precision floating point, a capability that makes this device a high-performance processing solution for a wide range of imaging applications.

MPC8543E general-purpose control processor - Key features include 256KB L2 cache, integrated security, 64-bit DDR1/2 scaling up to 400 MHz data rate, 32-bit PCI, 4-bit Serial RapidIO or 4-bit PCI Express, and two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. With clock frequencies scaling from 800 MHz to 1 GHz, this cost-effective device is suited for a wide range of general-purpose embedded control applications, such as robotics, discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing control.


Fujitsu: New 8-bit Microcontroller Family Runs at 100ns

The new F2MC-8FX series' instruction cycle time is as fast as 100 nanoseconds. Operating voltage is as low as 1.8 V and low-power consumption operations can be achieved using only 1.0 microamperes in the real-time clock mode. The family's dual-operation Flash memory can perform write operations at the same time that programs execute on the other memory bank.

The initial F2MC-8FX MCUs in 48-pin and 64-pin packages are integrated with 60KB dual-operation Flash, a LIN (Local Interconnect Interface), support for UART, SIO, I2C, multiple PPG (Programmable Pulse Generator), timer/counter, 10-bit ADC, and rich external interrupt support. The MB95F118 is a 48-pin device that operates at 3V; the MB95F108 has 64 pins and operates at 3V. The MB95F108H operates at 5V. The series will have mask ROM configuration devices in subsequent releases.

The new devices come in LQFP-64 and LQFP-48 packages, with prices starting at $2.24 each in 1,000-unit volumes.


Infineon: New 16-bit Micros with 256k FLASH, New Tricore 32-bit Micro

The new XC16x family offers extended embedded Flash memory of 256Kbytes which is double the memory capacity of Infineon’s present microcontrollers. The first three controllers already available, the XC167CI-32F40F, the XC161CS-32F40F and the XC164CS-32F40F, feature peripheral sets including a flexible and intelligent on-chip pulse width modulation (PWM) unit. The press release provides no details on the "peripheral sets" beyond that - you'll have to study the datasheets to find out. The new micros are built on the C166S V2 core with 25 ns instruction time at 40 MHz and work over an extended temperature range of -40°C to +125°C.

The new TC1100 is based on Infineon’s TriCore architecture and offers an on-chip Memory Management Unit (MMU) and Floating Point Unit (FPU), well-targeted on-chip peripherals, and a clock rate up to 150 MHz. Compared to its family member, the TC1130, the TC1100 has a reduced peripheral set targeting cost-sensitive applications.


Microchip: Eight New PIC Micros With LCD Controller

Microchip announced eight new members of the 8-bit PIC microcontroller family with an integrated Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) module. These additions to the LCD PIC microcontroller family include  28-pin LCD microcontrollers  and 80-pin microcontrollers capable of driving 192 segments for touchscreen and segmented LCD displays.

The high-pincount PIC18F8490/8390/6490/6390 LCD family member's integrated LCD driver module is capable of driving 128 to 192 LCD segments in 64- and 80-pin packages, respectively. Additional features include: 8 to 16 Kbytes of Flash program memory; 768 Bytes of SRAM; LCD module with four multiplex commons and up to 48 segment drivers; six power-managed modes featuring nanoWatt Technology, and a 32 kHz to 32 MHz internal oscillator; 10-bit analog-to-digital converter with up to 12 signal channels and 100k samples-per-second; two analog comparators, programmable brownout detect and programmable low-voltage detect; MI2C/SPI, EUSART (supports LIN) and AUSART communication protocol support; four timers and two Capture/Compare/PWM Modules.

The new PIC16F917/916/914/913 LCD family members offer 28- and 40/44-pin package options that can drive 60 to 96 LCD segments. Additional features include: 7 to 14 Kbytes of Flash program memory; up to 352 Bytes of SRAM and 256 Bytes of EEPROM data memory; LCD module with four multiplex commons and up to 24 segment drivers; 10-bit analog-to-digital converter with up to 8 signal channels; two analog comparators; SPI, I2C, and AUSART communication protocol support; three timers, two Capture/Compare/PWM Modules and one Watchdog Timer.


Microchip: Two New dsPIC Micros with 66k FLASH, 12-bit A/D and CAN

Microchip announced that it has begun volume production of the dsPIC30F5011 and dsPIC30F5013 dsPIC® Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs).

Both dsPIC DSC devices offer performance speeds of up to 30 Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS) and 66 Kbytes of self-programming Flash memory. They integrate an array of on-chip functions, such as: 16- and 32-bit timers, input capture, output compare, communication modules (such as UART, SPI™ interface, I2C™ interface, CAN and CODEC interface) and a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter. They also include 4 Kbytes of data RAM and 1 Kbyte of high-endurance EEPROM data memory. Both are specified in industrial, extended temperatures ranges, and are applicable to a variety of applications, including industrial, automotive, consumer and office-automation equipment.


Microchip: New PIC18 FLASH Micros in 28- and 40/44 Pin Packages

The new PIC18F2520, PIC18F2510, PIC18F2420, and PIC18F2410 are available in 28-pin SDIP, SOIC and QFN packages, the PIC18F4520, PIC18F4510, PIC18F4420, and PIC18F4410 come in 40-pin PDIP, 44-pin TQFP and QFN packages.

Features include: 16 or 32 Kbytes of Flash program memory, up to 1.5 Kbytes RAM; 10-bit analog-to-digital converter with up to 13 signal channels and 100k samples-per-second; two analog comparators, programmable brownout reset and programmable low-voltage detect; SPI, I2C and AUSART (supports LIN, RS485 and RS232) interfaces; two Capture/Compare/PWM Modules.

Below US$100 development tools support for all new PIC microcontrollers is provided by Microchips free MPLAB Integrated Development Environment software and the PIC-ICD2 In-Circuit Debugger and Programmer.


Renesas: SuperH™ Family SH7080 with 80MHz and 512k Flash

Renesas announced a total of five models in the SuperHTM*1 Family SH7080 Series, featuring an 80 MHz maximum operating frequency representing a 1.6-fold improvement in performance over the 50 MHz of Renesas current SH7144 Series. These microcontrollers also feature a 256 to 512 Kbytes of on-chip flash memory capable of constant single-cycle (12.5 ns) access and 16k to 32k RAM. An on-chip power supply step-down circuit in this new series allows the use of a 3.3 V or 5 V single power supply.

Although single-chip microcontrollers, SH7080 Series devices incorporate memory controllers that allow direct connection of external memory such as flash memory or synchronous DRAM. On-chip multifunction timer pulse units provide 3-phase PWM output for motor control in general-purpose inverter and AC servo applications. Dual and triple unit 10-bit A/D converters offer twice the previous conversion speed and up to 16 analog input channels. A synchronous serial communication unit, 5 UARTs, I2C interface and a DMA controller, enable sophisticated, high-performance systems to be implemented.

Prices range from 1700 to 2415 Yen. Packages available are 110 pin TQFP, 112, 144 and 176 pin LQFP.


TI: 2004 MSP430 Developers Conference in Dallas, Munich & Beijing

The TI 2004 MSP430 Developers Conference will be held on November 9-11, 2004 at The Fairmont Dallas Hotel in Dallas, TX; November 17-18, 2004 at the Swissotel in Beijing, China and December 7-9, 2004 at Munich Airport Marriott Hotel in Freising, Germany.

Attendees can customize their training by choosing from a variety of all new in-depth workshops and seminars gaining an in-depth understanding of the MSP430 architecture, peripherals, coding/design techniques, applications and the newest MSP430 devices and tools. For more details see: http://www.ti.com/2004atc.


Zilog: Higher Pin-Count and More ROM Memory for Remote Controls

After announce last month ROM base ZLR16300 family with up to 16k of ROM and 28pins, Zilog now announced the Crimzon ZLR32300 family that offers a choice of 8, 16, 24 or 32KB of ROM memory, a 2.0 - 3.6V operating range, and comes in 20, 28, 40 and 48-pin and SOIC, SSOP and PDIP flavors.

The Crimzon family features circuitry to automate both generation and reception of complex pulses or signals, making them a good choice for IR remote control applications. Price is US$1.35 in 10kU quantities.


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