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Microcontrollers operate to as low as 2V.
Breaking the low-voltage barrier, two 8-bit OTP µCs have an operating voltage range of 2 to 3.8V, making them suitable for any battery-operated device that uses two AA cells. The PIC16LV54A and PIC16LV58A offer three oscillator configurations: RC and XT at 2 MHz and LP at 200 kHz. At 2 MHz and 3V, the controllers dissipate 0.5 mA when active; power-down mode reduces dissipation to 0.25 µA. The 18-pin plastic DIP versions of the PIC16LV54A (512-word program memory) and PIC16LV58A (2048-word program memory) cost $1.95 and $2.57, respectively (1000). Microchip Technology Inc, Chandler, AZ. (602) 786-7200.
8-bit OTP µC offers enhanced feature set.
The 68HC705C9A, an OTP version of the 8-bit 68HC05C9A µC, provides a programmable mask-option register (MOR) and programmable MOR for Port B pullup resistors. The device also carries as much as 15.9 kbytes of OTP memory and 352 bytes of RAM. Other features include keyboard interrupt, memory-mapped I/O, an asynchronous serial-communications interface, and a synchronous SPI. The 68HC705C9A, which you can configure to emulate the 68HC05C12A, comes in a 40-pin PLCC, 44-pin QFP, and 42-pin plastic SDIP. The controller costs $9.50 (OEM). Motorola Microcontroller Technologies Group, Austin, TX. (800) 765-7795, ext. 855.
6x86 processor sets high-water mark for Winstone 96 benchmark.
With a clock speed of 150 MHz, the 6x86 P200+ µP achieves a 91.6 rating under the Winstone 96 benchmark suite (based on 13 actual Windows applications). The 6x86 P200+ outperforms the 200-MHz Pentium processor, which scored an 89 under Winstone 96, and costs less than the 166-MHz Pentium. Key features of the P200+ include a superpipelined, superscaled architecture and a 16-kbyte primary cache with multiple ports to reduce bottlenecks. The 6x86 P200+ costs $479. IBM Microelectronics, Hope-well Junction, NY. (800) 769-3772.
Communications controller mixes DSP and RISC technologies. Offered as a SPARC-based alternative to the Motorola PowerQUICC series, the TSC701 digital controller supplies timers, USART/PCM, memory, and parallel I/O with a CPU core. The device, which combines DSP and RISC technologies, uses a communications coprocessor, which provides up to 128 HDLC channels at 64 kbps or 8 Mbps with up to 50 MIPS and 24-kbyte internal cache memories. The TSC701 is first in the company's SPARClet line and is compatible with SunSPARC stations and SPARC software. The controller costs $70 (10,000). Temic, Santa Clara, CA. (408) 567-8220.
8-bit OTP µCs come in eight-pin packages. The PIC12CXXX family packs RISC-based PIC16/17 8-bit µC architecture into eight-pin plastic-DIPs and -SOIC packages. The first two members of the OTP family are the PIC12C508, with 512 words of program memory and 25 bytes of user RAM, and the PIC12C509, which offers 1024 words of program memory and 41 bytes of RAM. Both devices have six I/O pins with an on-chip clock oscillator, 33 single-word instructions, and a 1-µsec instruction cycle at 4 MHz. Prices for both the PIC12C508 and PIC-12C509, in either package, are <$0.99 (50,000). Microchip Technology Inc, Chandler, AZ. (602) 786-7200.
Z8 µC comes in OTP, masked-ROM, and low-voltage versions. Full-featured Z8 8-bit µCs come in several configurations, including a low-cost, OTP part. You can quickly convert the 18-pin Z86E02 to the Z86C02 masked-ROM device. The low-voltage Z86L02 operates over an input range of 2 to 3.9V. All three microcontrollers come in 18-pin plastic DIPs and have 512 bytes of program memory and 61 bytes of user RAM. The Z86E02 costs $0.59 (large volume), and the Z86C02 and Z86L02 cost $0.49 (high volume). Zilog, Campbell, CA. (408) 370-8000.