Microprocessors

ARM is working with Silicon Labs to create power management application programming interfaces (API) for Cortex-M-based embedded systems as part of its mbed development platform. The APIs are designed to allow developers to manage processor and peripheral states. For example a feature exposed by the APIs on Silicon Labs’ EFM32 Gecko microcontrollers determines and enables the optimal sleep mode based ...

Rutronik is selling Vekatech’s development board VK-RZ/A1H with the embedded microprocessor RZ/A1H from Renesas with an ARM Cortex-A9. The embedded microprocessor RZ/A1H with running at up to 400MHz clock speed integrates up to 10MB of on-chip RAM, OpenVG compatible graphics accelerator, dual LCD-drivers and camera inputs. The internal SRAM can hold two layers of WXGA size images making external SRAM ...

Toshiba has added two ARM Cortex-M4F based TX04 series microcontrollers. Both the TMPM470FDFG and TMPM475FDFG are capable of operating two brushless DC motors simultaneously.

Texas Instruments has introduced a 16MHz 16bit RISC microcontroller with four 24bit sigma-delta ADCs, with differential programmable gain amplifiers. ADCs have 2nd order over-sampling modulators and digital decimation filters. “The decimation filters are comb-type filters with selectable oversampling ratios of up to 256. This results in ADCs that have a high degree of resolution with a high degree of accuracy,” ...

Claimed to be the smallest PC ever, Hannspree has squeezed a real Intel+Microsoft PC into a stick – it includes a quad-core Atom and will run Windows 8.1. Called Micro-PC, in needs to be plugged into an HDMI-compatible display (touch optional) and a wireless keyboard with tough pad. “Set up office in any location and be up and running in ...

Toshiba has announced three ARM Cortex-A9 microprocessors intended for sound and image data-mining, communications, and security. “Recent advances in big data are making it easier to sift through huge volumes of data and to develop services that provide users with greater value and convenience,” said the firm. “These advances require higher performance application processors that support secure communication and provide ...

Microchip believes even quite sophisticated motor control can implemented with an 8-bit microcontroller. Microchip is questioning the assumption that high end motor control requires the performance of a 32-bit ARM microcontroller or indeed its own 32bit MIPS-based MCUs. “We refuse to commoditise the 8-bit microcontroller, we are investing in the PIC range to take it in to new higher performance ...

Renesas Electronics has introduced a reference design for a smart meter, which incorporates metrology and calibration routines, required for a billing polyphase meter design. The hardware platform is based on the firm’s RX21A microcontroller with a metrology front end circuit and the application processor in a single chip. The RX21A MCUs incorporate three, four or seven independent 24-bit delta-sigma analogue-digital ...

Polish processor firm Digital Core Design has introduced a synthesisable soft IP core microcontroller which is compatible with the Motorola MC68HC11K range of MCUs. Designed as a replacement MCU for a number of MC68HC11K microcontrollers, the 16-bit core contains input capture and output-compare lines and a real-time interrupt function. An 8-bit pulse accumulator subsystem can count external events or measure ...

Renesas Electronics has increased the memory capacity on its RX111 range of 32-bit microcontrollers. Existing RX111 MCUs in 36- to 64-pin packages have flash memory capacity of 16kbyte to 128kbyte and RAM capacity of 8kbyte to 16kbyte. The new versions extend the flash memory capacity range to 512kbyte and the RAM capacity range to 64kbyte. The RXv1 core in the RX111 MCUs run at an operating frequency ...