Next-Generation MSP430 MCUs Add More Memory, Peripherals
Portable Design News, Tuesday June 10, 2008
Texas Instruments Incorporated has announced the next generation of ultra-low power MSP430 microcontrollers (MCU), offering the industry’s lowest power consumption for devices that can provide up to 25 MHz peak performance, increased Flash and RAM memory and integrated peripherals such as radio frequency (RF), USB, encryption and LCD interfaces. With as low as 160 µA/MHz active power consumption and 1.5 µA in standby, MSP430F5xx MCUs enable longer battery life and the ability to use smaller batteries for portable applications, or no batteries at all for energy harvesting systems that run off of solar power, vibration energy or human body temperature.
With 56 percent more processing performance and double the Flash and RAM memory of previous 1xx, 2xx or 4xx generations, F5xx devices help systems perform demanding tasks while operating from very limited power sources. Designers can tap into peak execution performance of up to 25 MHz while consuming as low as 160uA/MHz. A wake up time of less than 5 microseconds with full status retention from both standby and sleep modes provides full performance on demand and instant reaction to events like external interrupts. Multi-channel direct memory access (DMA) permits data exchange with peripherals while the core remains in low-power modes. The industry's highest code density among comparable devices maximizes performance while minimizing memory and power requirements.
A true 32-bit real-time clock (RTC) with an alarm requires just 1.5 µA of standby current, enabling batteries to operate without servicing for 20 years or longer. A new, cutting-edge power management module (PMM) offers flexibility to choose the optimum core voltage dynamically for lowest power vs. performance requirements while enabling accurate power on reset and supply voltage supervision with monitoring. A unified clock system (UCS) offers a selection of clocks to achieve the right mix of power and precision, including an option for operation without a crystal.
Intelligent, high-performance digital and analog peripherals consume no power when not in operation, and future F5xx devices will include peripherals such as RF, USB, encryption and LCD interfaces. A new high-resolution timer will offer advanced processing capabilities to enable applications like voice-activated home security systems. Up to one megabyte of linear memory mapping enables robust user interfaces, as well as applications for ZigBee and other low-power RF sensor networks. F54xx devices offer up to 16 kilobytes of RAM and up to 256 KB Flash, doubling Flash and RAM available on previous MSP430F2xx, F1xx and F4xx devices. The new devices offer read/erase/write capability down to 1.8 V and with AAA battery-based application, Flash write is possible down to the battery end of life voltage of 0.9 V.
MSP430F5438IPZ devices are sampling now and MSP430F5437IPN, F5436IPZ, F5435IPN, F5419IPZ and F5418IPN will be released in August 2008, with additional F5xx introductions scheduled for the coming months. Package options include both 80- and 100-pin thin quad flatpacks (TQFPs), the latter with additional general-purpose I/Os. Pricing at 1ku quantities vary from $3.29 to $4.85; F5418IPN devices will be priced at $2.99 in 10ku quantities.
Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, TX, (800) 336-5236, [www.ti.com]
