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Welcome to the December 2006 edition of MicroController
Pros Corporation's Embedded News Digest, your source for microcontroller and
embedded system news.
-
New product
additions at the MicroControllerShop:
ARM:
ARM C Tutorial CD-ROM - self-contained CD-ROM Tutorial for learning C
programming for ARM microcontrollers.
ARM9 based Linux box, metal enclosure, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, 4 serial ports
(RS422/RS232), 2 USB host, 1 USB client, SD card interface.
Atmel AT91RM9200 (ARM9) Development Kit, Linux pre-loaded, 10/100Mbps
Ethernet, 4 serial ports (RS422/RS232), 2 USB host, 1 USB client, SD card
interface
Compact processor boards with NXP
(Philips)
LPC2292,
LPC2132, or
LPC2129. All boards feature 10MHz osc., JTAG header and header access to
processor pins.
Samsung S3C2410A (ARM9) Board with 1x USB Host 1x USB client, IDE
interface, 3x serial ports, Ethernet, SD card interface
Samsung S3C2410A (ARM9) Board similar features as above, but without IDE
interface.
ARM C Compiler with Philips LPC2103 (ARM) Development Board Bundle, with
many example programs.
MSP430:
MSP430F1611/1612 ZigBee Board, 4-node Zigbee Network Stack from Airbee
Wireless, ZMD44102 915MHZ RF transceiver.
Universal Programmer:
Needhams EMP-100 Universal Programmer, USB port, 6400+ devices $349.95
Programming adapters. We re-designed & expanded our programming adapter
category. Now over 50 adapters, categorized by socket.
LCDs:
Now over 20 LCD Modules available. 2x16, 4x20, OLED, graphic, serial (I2C/SPI)
LCDs.
- Please help us to spread the word about this free
microcontroller news source.
Let your friends, colleagues or customers know about the Embedded News Digest.
This month's issue:
Atmel Announces
Latest ARM9-based Microcontroller
Atmel
Announces Four New picoPower AVR Microcontrollers
NEC
Extends 16- and 32-Bit All Flash Microcontroller Lineup
STMicroelectronics' 8-bit ST7FMC Family Now Qualified for Automotive
Applications
TI's New TMS320C6454 DSP Supplies Improvements in Memory and I/O at Lower Cost
Crossware
Adds Support for 21 More NXP ARM Microcontrollers
Atmel
Announces Latest ARM9-based Microcontroller
Atmel announced the newest member of their SAM9 family, the
AT91SAM9263, embedding a 200 MIPS ARM926EJ-STM-based microcontroller which
overcomes the bottlenecks that occur with conventional ARM9TM-based MCUs in
graphically-interfaced, data-intensive applications such as networked medical
monitoring equipment and GPS navigation systems. The AT91SAM9263 employs 27 DMA
channels, including Atmel's 18-channel peripheral DMA controller (PDC), a
9-layer bus matrix, and two additional buses for data- and
instruction-tightly-coupled-memories (TCMs) to boost CPU performance and provide
on-chip data transfer rates of up to 41.6 Gbps. Two external bus interfaces (EBIs)
support gigabyte-plus external memories.
On-chip human interface peripherals include a camera interface, TFT/STN LCD
controller, a 6-channel audio front-end interface (AC97), I2S and a 2D graphics
co-processor that off-loads line draw, block transfer, polygon fill, and
clipping functions from the CPU.
Networking peripherals include a 12 Mbps USB host and device, a 10/100 Ethernet
MAC and a 1 Mbps CAN. There are also four USARTs, two 50 Mbps SPIs, CompactFlash,
SDIO (MCI) and a TWI which can be connected to external wired and wireless
communication modules like GPRS modem and Wi-Fi.
The AT91SAM9263 integrates 18 simple, silicon-efficient, single-cycle,
peripheral DMA controllers, five DMA controllers with burst mode support to the
USB host, Ethernet MAC, camera interface, LCD controller and 2D graphics
controller, plus a memory-to-memory DMA controller with burst mode,
scatter-gather and linked lists support. The DMA controllers completely off-load
the execution of data transfers between external serial interfaces and memories.
At a 20 Mbps data rate, the SAM9263 still has 88 percent of its MIPS available
for application execution.
Atmel has implemented 11 buses and 96 Kbytes of on-chip scratchpad SRAM on the
AT92SAM9263. The SRAM can be partly configured as tightly-coupled data and
instruction memory (TCM). The buses provide multiple parallel on-chip data
transfer channels and a total on-chip bandwidth of 41.6 Gbps.
The AT91SAM9263 has two external bus interfaces (EBI): one for the system memory
and one for the human interface. The second EBI eliminates the need for the LCD
controller and CPU to share memory, and can increase available CPU MIPS by 20 to
40 percent.
The AT91SAM9263 is available now in a 324-ball BGA package and is priced at
sub-$10 for 100,000 units.
Atmel
Announces Four New picoPower AVR Microcontrollers
Atmel announced four new AVR microcontrollers that are upgraded versions of the 64-pin ATmega325/329 and the 100-pin
ATmega3250/3290 microcontrollers.
The 64-pin ATmega329P and 100-pin ATmega3290P devices integrate a complete LCD
controller that has several features, including a dedicated low-power LCD
waveform, an internal contrast control, a flexible selection of drive time and
frame frequency, an internal power supply for the LCD voltage, and the ability
to operate in power-save mode for low power consumption. Compared to existing
market solutions, the internal LCD power supply reduces the number of components
in the end product, only requires one external capacitor and is powerful enough
to drive a 3.3V LCD display from a battery voltage of 1.8V or higher.
The new ATmega325P and ATmega3250P devices are pin- and feature-compatible to
the ATmega329P and ATmega3290P, without the on-chip LCD controller. The
ATmega325P and ATmega3250P are a perfect fit in applications where many
general-purpose I/O, high connectivity and ultra-low power consumption are
essential.
All four microcontrollers feature 32 Kbytes of self-programmable Flash memory, 2
Kbytes of SRAM and 1 Kbyte of EEPROM, 10-bit ADC, 3 Timer/Counters, USART, SPI,
I2C-compatible two-wire-interface, and full operation from 1.8 to 5.5 volts with
up to 16 MIPS throughput. The ATmega329P can support up to 100 LCD segments and
the ATmega3290P supports up to 160 LCD segments.
The picoPower technology utilizes a variety of techniques that eliminate unnecessary power consumption in power-down modes.
These include an ultra-low-power 32 kHz crystal oscillator, automatic disabling
and re-enabling of brown-out detection (BOD) circuitry during sleep modes, a
power reduction register that completely powers down individual peripherals, and
digital input disable registers that reduces the leakage current on digital
inputs. The picoPower AVR microcontrollers consume as little as 340 uA in Active
mode, 650 nA in Power-save mode with Real-Time Counter (RTC), and 100 nA in
Power-down mode.
The ATmega329P and ATmega325P in 64-pin TQFP or QFN packages are available now.
Samples for the ATmega3290P and ATmega3250P in 100-pin TQFP packages will be
available in January 2007. Production quantities will be available in the first
quarter of 2007 for ATmega329P and ATmega325P, and the second quarter of 2007
for ATmega3290P and ATmega3250P. Volume prices for 10,000 units are $3.54 for
ATmega329P, $3.20 for ATmega325P, $3.90 for ATmega3290P and $3.37 for the
ATmega3250P, respectively.
NEC
Extends 16- and 32-Bit All Flash Microcontroller Lineup
NEC Electronics America announced that it has added 16 new devices to its lineup
of 16- and 32-bit all-Flash microcontrollers. These latest MCUs offer up to
twice the memory and a significant increase in pin-count options compared to
previous devices in the line. The new
lineup includes two 32-bit V850ES/JJ3 MCUs with up to 1 megabyte (MB) of flash
memory, and fourteen new 16-bit 78K0R/Kx3 MCUs with up to 512 KB of memory and
144-pin packages.
With the addition of these latest devices, NEC Electronics now boasts a
comprehensive lineup of 208 all-Flash MCUs, ranging from cost-efficient 8-bit
devices to high-performance 32-bit devices with a wide selection of memory
devices and pin-count options to suit the diverse needs of system designers.
As part of an NEC Electronics global manufacturing strategy announced in
February 2006, NEC Electronics America is expanding its semiconductor
manufacturing capabilities in Roseville, California, by adding a 0.15-micron
process using eight-inch wafers to the current 0.35- and 0.25-micron processes
using six-inch wafers. The pilot line is expected to begin mass production
during the summer of 2007.
The new devices are currently available at $13.50 for the V850ES/JJ3 MCUs and $9
for the 78K0R/Kx3 MCUs in sample quantities. The 32-bit V850ES/JJ3 is expected
to be ready for volume production by May 2007, and the 78K0R/Kx3 is expected to
be ready for volume production by October 2007. Total monthly production for all
sixteen devices is expected to reach 100,000 units worldwide by the first
quarter of 2008.
STMicroelectronics' 8-bit ST7FMC Family Now Qualified for Automotive
Applications
STMicroelectronics, announced that its ST7FMC microcontroller family
has been Automotive-Grade qualified to meet the specific and rigorous demands of
the automotive market. Built around an industry-standard 8-bit core and designed
for driving Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors, this microcontroller family
is ideal for use in various car body applications such as fuel and water pumps,
cooling fans and interior blowers.
The ST7FMC family features higher system integration compared to alternative
microprocessor or DSP-based approaches. The family features an embedded motor-control cell, which includes
six-phase PWM control, voltage or current sensing, and a highly flexible Back
Electromotive Force (BEMF) detector for the sensorless control of
permanent-magnet BLDC motors. All the application-specific devices in the family
now operate over the full automotive temperature range of -40 degrees C to +125
degrees C and include safety features such as current sensing used for stall
detection, asynchronous emergency stop, write-once registers and Clock Security
System (CSS). ST's patented algorithms also enable the motor-control cell to
offer unique fail-free motor-starting capabilities.
The higher integration of the family allows reduced code size, while the
addition of the motor-control cell minimizes the CPU load to control the motor.
In addition, an integrated LIN communication interface and the availability of a
complete set of standard peripherals control various application environments.
Housed in tiny TQFP32 and TQFP44 packages, the devices are available now in
production volume. Pricing starts from $1.65, depending on the device, in
10,000-unit quantities.
TI's New TMS320C6454 DSP Supplies Improvements in Memory and I/O at Lower Cost
Texas Instruments announced the availability of the cost-effective,
high-performance TMS320C6454 DSP. The new 1GHz C6454 DSP is based on the TMS320C64x+TM DSP core and TI's highest-performing DSP
architecture.
TI also announced that the TMS320C6455 DSP is in production, making it the only
DSP with Serial RapidIO (sRIO) in production.
The C6454 DSP provides an ideal migration path for the many TI customers who are
currently using C641x DSPs. The
C6454 DSP achieves 8000 MMAC (million multiply accumulate cycles per second) and
four times the EDMA throughput of the core used in the earlier devices. It
provides additional features, such as 1MB L2 memory, gigabit Ethernet, C64x+
core and increased DDR2 external memory and cache, and is similarly priced to
C641x devices.
Comparably priced with the widely used C641x DSPs but based on the enhanced
C64x+ architecture, the C6454 DSP offers designers a 20- to 30-percent reduction
in code size. The C6454 DSP also achieves a 20-percent increase in cycle
efficiency due to the core's specialized instruction set with support for the
frequently performed FFT, FIR and DCT operations.
High-speed
peripherals include a Gigabit Ethernet MAC and a 66-MHz PCI interface to allow
video infrastructure, telecom and video-imaging customers to meet high-bandwidth
interconnections. The C6454 DSP doubles L1 data and L1 instruction cache and
provides a twofold increase in DDR2 external memory at 533 MHz to provide
balanced memory I/O and processor performance. Since the C6454 DSP is
code-compatible and is based on the C64x+ core, customers also profit from a 4x
increase in EDMA bandwidth and twice the number of 16-bit MMACs.
The C6454 DSP is a lower-cost alternative to the C6455 DSP, allowing customers
to reap a $60 saving due to the reduction in on-chip L2 memory to 1MB and the
removal of peripherals, including UTOPIA and sRIO, the Viterbi coprocessor
(VCP2) and Turbo coprocessor (TCP2), which are not always required in certain
designs. For programmers that demand the highest-performing C64x DSP platform
but not necessarily the multi-chip interconnect capabilities, the C6454 DSP
without the SRIO bus is an affordable, more economical alternative. Developers
presently using the C6455 DSP who will benefit by transitioning to the C6454 DSP
will have minimal hardware redesign since the two devices are completely
pin-compatible.
The TMS320C6454 DSP is now available for $94 at 720 MHz in 10,000-unit
quantities from TI and TI Authorized Distributors. The device is packaged in a
24 × 24 mm, 697-lead BGA.
Crossware Adds Support for 21 More NXP ARM Microcontrollers
Crossware has added support to its
ARM Development Suite
for 21 more NXP Semiconductor ARM-based microcontrollers. All of NXP's LPC21xx and LPC22xx chips are now
supported.
Many of the newly supported chips include an external memory controller, allowing them
access to external Flash memory and external RAM. The Crossware environment makes
it easy to configure this memory controller and the chip's memory interface pins -- a process
that would otherwise require a time-consuming study of the manufacturer's data sheet
and detailed analysis of the interaction between resources competing for the pins.
The Crossware Code Creation Wizard presents a graphical view that shows clearly which pins
will be allocated simultaneously.
Programming external memory also requires the debugger to pre-configure the chip prior to the
download process. The Crossware environment can automatically create a configuration script
either from the simulating program or from the configured hardware, thereby eliminating the need
for a script to be created manually.
Crossware's experience of Flash memory programming within the Coldfire architecture has been
transferred to the ARM environment, so a wide range of Flash memory chips are supported
including AMD-compatible Flash memory and Intel's Strataflash.
Code Creation Wizards will create code for all of the microcontrollers' on-chip peripherals.
Two interfaces to the Code Creation Wizards are provided within the ARM Development Suite.
A graphical interface allows rapid configuration of the main elements of the peripheral.
The other interface is more text-based and presents the user with register and bitfield names
and a click-and-insert method for creating instructions that read and write registers,
wait for bits to be set or cleared, etc. This second interface allows the user to generate
arbitrary code rapidly and without reference to the manufacturer's documentation.
The Crossware ARM Development Suite
provides a complete and extremely user-friendly development environment for the ARM family of microprocessor cores, with its advanced
C/C++ compiler, libraries, wizards, simulator, source-level debugger and the included Jaguar USB JTAG debugger interface.
MicroController Pros Corporation (µCPros) is an authorized
distributor for many microcontroller tool vendors, which enables us to offer you
a large selection of Microcontroller Development Tools for almost any major
microcontroller architecture.
The
MicroControllerShop (http://microcontrollershop.com) puts convenient and
secure online shopping, feature- and price-comparison on your computer's
desktop. Microcontroller Development Tools featured at the
MicroControllerShop
include: Emulators, EPROM programmers, FLASH programmers, microcontroller C-
compilers, assemblers, emulator accessories, pin adapters, pin converters,
microcontroller starter kits and embedded evaluation boards for various
microcontroller architectures and manufacturers.
copyright 2006 by
MicroController Pros Corporation
visit our web
http://www.ucpros.com
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