Microcontrollers target low-power applications

Texas Instruments has expanded its MSP430 microcontroller portfolio to include ultra-low-power versions for use in portable instruments and other products demanding low power consumption. The first devices in this expanded lineup include 16-bit units in the MSP430F20xx series, which offer a 14-pin, 4x4-mm footprint and execution speeds of 16 million instructions per second (MIPS). They are code-compatible with existing MSP430 devices.

Fabricated in the vendor's F2xx process, the MSP430F20xx units operate over a 1.8- to 3.6-V range. Active current is 200 μA/MIPS, and standby current is less than 1 μA. Each device can switch from standby mode to full 16-MIPS operation in less than one μs. A flexible clock system permits operation to 16 MHz with no external components.

All MSP430F20xx units offer in-system-programmable flash, 128 bytes of RAM, a zero-power brownout-reset function, programmable pull-up/pull-down resistors on I/O pins, and a universal serial interface that can be configured as an I²C or SPI master or slave. To get started, users can purchase the MSP-FET430U14 kit, which contains a USB-based IEEE 1149.1 interface board and complete integrated development environment.

Base price: $0.49 in quantities of 100,000. Availability: samples now, production quantities in Q4. MSP430F20xx versions to be introduced over the next 18 months will add functions such as additional memory and sigma-delta ADCs. Texas Instruments, www.ti.com/mcu.