» The ARM7 micro core appears to be ubiquitous these days.
Two of our selections feature it. In other news, DSPs and
general-purpose microcontrollers continue to proliferate in
a variety of flavors. And then, there are those intriguing
technology developments form AMI and Sharp. Read on.
(1) ATMEL ARM7 flash MCU goes for under $3 eeProductCenter's Marty Gold says: "Atmel Corp. has launched the first family of ARM7-based flash microcontrollers with prices starting at less then $3, targeted at 8-bit applications. The AT91SAM7S32 and the AT91SAM7S64 are the first members of this family of small pin-count Smart ARM7 Microcontrollers (SAM7S) with flash densities of 32 kBytes, and 64 kBytes. " Readers say: » "We have a product in development that may benefit from the increased performance."
» "The future is ARM."
» "Others go even further with price ..."
» "It's not available in production quantities. The comparable Philips LPC21xx series is!"
» "Finally 32-bit MCUs are living up to the hype of actually being able to compete with 8- and 16-bit MCUs. Keep dropping those prices!"
» "USB OTG preferred."
» "Great"
» "Looks like a great competitor to the Philips Arm7 MCU."
USABILITY RANK: 1
(2) AMI SEMICONDUCTOR Finally, Embedded EEPROM for Real World Designs At a Good Price -- Free eeProductCenter's Jon Gabay says: "AMI announced the development of what it calls, the FREEPROM. This is an embedded EEPROM memory module based on its 0.35-micron (I3T) smart power technology. " Readers say: » "Need empirical tests in an application to make a valid comment."
» "Would be more interesting in smaller process sizes."
» "It is just a vague summary of a technology. What about a part number? A (pre-release) data-sheet? Something I can look at and think if I'll use it or not."
» "Nice to see it will be offered in wide temperature range. Mil temp? Meet 38510 specs? Cost effective? Roadmap?"
» "The product is very price sensitive. A standard EEPROM´s cost is less than $0.20 each depending on the density."
USABILITY RANK: 4
(3) TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TI's MSP430 MCUs get Eclipse-based development tools eeProductCenter's Marty Gold says: "It's TI's first open-source integrated development environment (IDE). Based on the Eclipse open source platform, Code Composer Essentials was designed specifically to offer users an intuitive interface for reducing time to market at a lower total system cost. " Readers say: » "Using Eclipse is a good step in the right direction, but only if it ends up significantly reducing the prices of TI's development tools."
» "It would have been far more interesting if it really used Eclipse more and was not so slow. I think this is a hybrid solution and it shows."
» "Everyone is into Eclipse these days. TI's code composer, I think is a fine tool, as for Eclipse, it is really a nice platform."
» "Good IDE able to integrate with UML"
» "Very interesting development. There is a large need for inexpensive tools and having a standard plug-in framework is a huge benefit."
» "One disadvantage: It's slow."
» "It is always good to see free development tools."
» "I feel eclipse is allowing us, as developers, to have a common IDE for many platforms and tools. This helps in many ways including allowing developers to come up to speed and stay up to speed on many tools."
USABILITY RANK: 2
(4) ROYAL PHILIPS ELECTRONICS ARM7-based MCUs tout improvements in speed, on-chip flash eeProductCenter's Marty Gold says: "The 32-bit microcontroller arena continues to heat-up as Philips this week launches the newest members of its LPC2000 MCU family based on the 16/32-bit ARM7TDMI-S version of the increasingly popular ARM7 core. " Readers say: » "Happy these are coming up!"
» "Atmels USB2.0 peripheral gets my vote"
» "I'm currently applying the LPC2138 in an application, after having reviewed just about every other ARM 7 based uC for the job. Philips won on the no-wait flash execution, which isn't true in the face of branches, but, then, I get to write the assembly drivers, so there won't be any, and the number of available digital I/O lines in the small size factor. It ain't done yet. We'll see how it all turns out!"
» "Great looking performance specs. Appears to be a cost-effective solution that will drive higher-density MCU use."
» "Propretary designs are much cheaper"
» "Available in production quantities, thats good."
» "Looks good, but no mention of tools or support."
USABILITY RANK: 3
(5) NEC ELECTRONICS Embedded DRAM Supports 10 Gb/sec eeProductCenter's Jon Gabay says: "A significant announcement and demonstration from NEC -- a new system packet interface level 4, phase 2 (SPI-4.2) macro core and embedded DRAM on actual silicon" Readers say: » "Not enough information on power draw, direct timings for glue, etc., but important for the SoC space."
» "This is an old announcement. Why read this now? Not applicable for most cost-effective DRAM uses."
» "No cost optimized solution compared to standalone and flip-chip"
» "Great idea to offer embedded DRAM."
» "A real technical innovation that only few compnies can achieve."
USABILITY RANK: 8
(6) SHARP 512KB Electronic Passports; One step Closer to Universal Electronic ID eeProductCenter's Jon Gabay says: "Sharp is now making a large-capacity (512KB flash memory), high transmission speed (424kbps) contactless IC module for electronic passports (e-passports). " Readers say: » "Transmission rate is impressive for this kind of RF module"
» "It will have to wait in trials until the standard is set."
» "Use of this product will depend on the concept of sacrificing individual freedoms. It would be better to embed a recognition device in a person than on a person."
» "Possibly useful, definitely scary!"
» "As mentioned in a recent IEEE Spectrum article, Electronic Passports do not significantly improve security. Far too much money and energy are being spent on "security" technology that does not in fact improve security. In addition to this we have the large potential for abuse of this technology."
» "This is significant as it could actually begin to change the retail industry related to theft."
» "The sooner we all have these, the happier I'll be."
» "Will need to overcome privacy concerns to gain acceptance. The pilot study should provide useful data."
» "Can this module be added to existing passports or will we all need to get new ones ?"
USABILITY RANK: 7
(7) MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY CAN MCUs housed in 28-pin, 6x6 mm QFN Packages eeProductCenter's Marty Gold says: "The PIC18F4580 units combine a small form factor with the company's ECAN module and nanoWatt Technology power management to complete the seamless migration path of Microchip's PIC18F CAN microcontroller portfolio from 16 to 64 Kbytes of Flash program memory and 28- to 80-pin package options." Readers say: » "I'm constantly impressed with the technology that Microchip packs into their PIC microcontrollers. This looks like another great step in their product enhancement and development."
» "Hopefully Microchip can provide a smaller datasheet than the actual (9Mb large). Not very handy."
» "As the electronic industry still is hurting, everyone is trying to get into automotive."
» "Not the greatest innovation."
» "Preferably provide free samples and the cheapest development tool"
» "Too expensive!!!"
» "Hot Links to some of the standards mentioned would be good."
USABILITY RANK: 5
(8) FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR Freescale's digital signal controllers optimize performance/price tradeoff eeProductCenter's Marty Gold says: "Freescale Semiconductor has expanded its 16-bit hybrid digital signal controller line with the 56F8100 series for price-sensitive industrial and consumer applications. " Readers say: » "Low-cost development boards are always a draw for these kinds of products.Freescale did the right thing there."
» "Good looking product (specs given for performance versus price), but I'd be concerned over long-term availability. Will Freescale be bought by someone who could better guarantee availability? Power levels?"
» "Good, compared to the TI dominance."
» "$6.19 for such a DSP is quite a good price"
USABILITY RANK: 6
(9) ANALOG DEVICES New Sharc DSPs celebrate Analog Devices' success with audio applications eeProductCenter's Marty Gold says: "The latest versions of the Sharc processor offer a choice of hardware price points and programming tools designed to make it easy to match processors and applications. " Readers say: » "Great features, and good market penetration, but keep development tool prices down!"
» "The push into consumer audio solutions is interesting and likely to make cool new features more widely available."
» "Need one with Flash ROM."
» "Nice speed increase"
USABILITY RANK: 9
(10) ZILOG ZiLOG expands 8-bit MCU line eeProductCenter's Marty Gold says: "ZiLOG says its new ZGP323 family of one-time programmable 8-bit microcontrollers offers system designers the most popular memory sizes, broad range of pin packages and optimum power performance for a broad base of embedded control applications." Readers say: » "These MCUs are great!"
» "The pricing appears very attractive. We will evaluate this."
» "Low-density, jelly-beans are unexciting - although still necessary. Auto industry should be happy."
» "For very large quantities and low cost, maybe OTP is the way to go but not for us, will stay with flash memory devices."
» "There are a lot of similar MCUs with these characteristics on the market."
USABILITY RANK: 10
