Microprocessors

Microchip targets 8-bit PICs at LED lights and motor control. It has introduced two new 8-bit microcontrollers in its range of PIC MCUs with core-independent peripherals (CIPs) which carry out processing functions without running the CPU. The intention is to extend the performance of low cost 8-bit MCUs by having dedicated hardware instead of software to run peripheral functions such ...

Renesas Electronics has introduced a low power microcontroller with DSP extensions and a floating point unit (FPU) in its RX series. The RX231 32-bit microcontrollers are based on a new version of the RX CPU core with a performance benchmark score of 4.16 CoreMark/MHz, which is a 35% increase on the previous generation RX200 series. With operating speeds of 54MHz, ...

STMicroelectronics says it is in volume production of its first ARM Cortex-M7 processor-based microcontrollers. The STM32F7 range of microcontrollers takes advantage of the Cortex-M7 core’s DSP extension capabilities. It has about twice the digital-signal processing (DSP) capability of the earlier Cortex-M4 processor. See: What’s ARM doing in the DSP market? This will make it useful in applications requiring high-speed or multi-channel audio, video, ...

Freescale’s latest generation of ARM-based embedded processors, the i.MX7 series integrates two different Cortex processor cores which adds to the MCU’s power efficiency. As a successor the the i.MX6 series, the i.MX7 series represents Freescale’s most power efficient ARM-based applications processor to date. The 28nm chip has a specified power efficiency of power efficiency of 15.7DMIPS/mW, and a low power state ...

Glasgow-based FTDI is promoting its 32-bit RISC FT90x microcontrollers with a free development board when the associated compiler is bought from MikroElektronika. Rather than being any of the usual suspects, the processing core within the FT90x was developed by FTDI runs with zero wait states up to 100MHz and delivers 293DMips. The development board, Clicker 2, also from MikroE, has ...

Russian fables chip firm Baikal has integrated a multi-core MIPS Warrior P-class (P5600) CPU into its Baikal-T1 communications processor.  “We are glad to present the world’s first publicly-announced implementation of the P5600 CPU,” said Baikal CTO Grigoriy Khrenov, “We created a high-performance, highly efficient communications SoC with a wide range of modern high-speed interfaces. Another valuable feature is the possibility to ...

Lapis Semiconductor has added voice playback capability and a Class-D amplifier to an 8bit microcontroller. 450mW is available at the output at 3V, or 1W at 5V. Called ML610Q304, it comes with up to 96kbyte program flash, 2kbyte data flash and 1kbyte RAM. Hardware-based audio playback minimises CPU load, and two suggested playback formats are 16kHz 16bitPCM and 16kHz HQ-ADPCM. ...

  IEC-3300 is a small-box computer based around Intel’s Bay Trail Celeron and Atom processors from Arbor Technology in Milton Keynes. Inside the 109 x 163mm enclosure, soldered-in processor options are: 1.58GHz dual-core N2807 Celeron (standard) 2GHz quad-core J1900 Celeron (option) 1.33GHz dual-core E3825 Atom (option) Applications are expected in automation and digital signage. “The system is perfect for customers looking for out-of-the-box CE/FCC certification. said ...

Toshiba has announced a new ARM Cortex-M4F based microcontroller for use in secure systems control. Called TMPM46BF10FG and part of the firm’s TX04 range, it incorporates a true random number generator (TRNG: SP800-90C standard) through a random entropy seed generation (ESG) circuit and Hash-DRGB created by the secure hash processor (SHA) and software program. “This meets the standards of security ...

Cypress Semiconductor is sampling a USB Type-C cable controller which includes power delivery (PD) on a small footprint. It is designed for use in 2.4mm thin USB Type-C cable connectors. The programmable EZ-PD CCG2 controller is capable of supporting any USB Type-C downstream facing port (DFP) or upstream facing port (UFP) applications. It is available in a 3.3 mm2 wafer ...