Micros
Leading MCUs enable both smart & secure things
STMicroelectronics has announced that ST has now delivered more than one billion general-purpose STM32 MCUs based on ARM Cortex cores. In addition, ST has also passed the 500m milestone for shipments of ST33 secure MCUs built around the ARM SecurCoreSC300 processor.
Low power techniques lead to energy savings
In order to meet the long battery life requirements in the growing market of IoT devices, energy saving is a paramount concern - specifically the reduction of static power consumption when devices spend up to 99.9 % of the time in an inactive mode.
Small package microcontroller with pre-driver
The TX03 series of ARM Cortex-M3-based microcontrollers from Toshiba Electronics Europe, has been extended with the introduction of the TMPM37AFSQG – a new IC that incorporates Toshiba’s Vector Engine Plus (VE+) coprocessor and a pre-driver to enable brushless DC motor control. The TMPM37AFSQG pre-driver can directly drive MOSFETs for complementary 3-phase PWM output with a minimum unit of 25ns.
High-sensitivity touch key MCUs offer more development environment
Renesas Electronics Europe has announced it is expanding development support for touch-based home appliance, building, industrial automation and portable medical applications with the RX130 Group of 32-bit MCUs. The new Group allows embedded developers to incorporate both user interface (i.e., touch key) and system control capabilities in a single MCU.
Extending battery life and eliminating external memory
The portfolio of Microchip’s Low Power PIC microcontrollers (MCUs) has been extended with the launch of the new PIC24F ‘GB6’ family. These include up to 1MB of Flash memory with Error Correction Code (ECC) and 32kB of RAM, making it the first 16-bit MCU in Microchip’s portfolio to offer such a large memory size.
MCUs offer 32-bit computing capabilities
Zilog has introduced its ZNEO32! family of 32-bit Cortex M3 MCUs, thereby expanding its line of MCU products. The Cortex M3 MCUs are special-purpose MCUs for first class motor applications that offer cost effective, high performance 32-bit computing capabilities. This family of MCUs provides 3-phase PWM generator units which are suitable for inverter motor drive systems.
Toolchain improves performance for Atmel 8-bit AVR MCUs
IAR Systems has released a version of its complete C/C++ development toolchain IAR Embedded Workbench for AVR. Version 6.70 of the popular toolchain includes improved compiler optimisations as well as new device support and updates to the add-on tool C-STAT for static code analysis.
SoC supports digital & analogue position sensors
Expanding the company's C2000 Delfino MCU portfolio, Texas Instruments has introduced what is claimed to be the industry’s first on-chip solution supporting both analogue and digital position sensors. The TMS320F28379D and TMS320F28379S MCUs, when combined with DesignDRIVE Position Manager technology, enable simple interfacing to position sensors.
Tiny 8-bit MCUs deliver precision analogue performance
Delivering what is claimed to be the highest analogue performance and peripheral integration in the 8-bit market, Silicon Labs has introduced the latest addition to its EFM8 MCU portfolio. The EFM8LB1 Laser Bee MCUs combine a high-speed ADC, multiple DACs, a highly accurate temperature sensor, two comparators and a 72MHz 8051 core with up to 64kB of flash.
Sub-1GHz wireless MCUs span 20km on a coin cell
Texas Instruments has announced the next device in the SimpleLink ultra-low power platform, designed to help customers easily add ultra-low power, long-range connectivity to their IoT designs. The SimpleLink Sub-1GHz CC1310 wireless MCUs offer up to 20 years of battery life for building and factory automation, alarm and security, smart grid and wireless sensor network applications.