Processor stretches battery life

Motorola's new low-power, low-voltage HCS08 8-bit flash-microcontroller family extends the HC08 architecture into 1.8V-battery-powered applications that require smaller packaging along with fewer and smaller batteries. The multiple power-management modes include a 50-nA power-down mode and an auto-wake-up-timer mode that typically draws less than 1 µA and requires no external crystal or components. A 25-nA power-down mode is available if you use an external wake-up circuit. The devices can operate at 8 MHz at 1.8V and can operate as fast as 20 MHz at 2.1V, which is the voltage necessary to support programmability for the 0.25-micron flash technology.

The first four devices in the HCS08 family, MC689S08GB32/60 and MC689S08GT32/60, are available now at prices ranging from $4.75 to $6.25 (10,000) in 64-lead, 10×10-mm QFPs; 44-lead, 7×7-mm QFPs; and 42-pin SDIPs. The GB devices include one three-channel and one five-channel 16-bit timer with 32 or 60 kbytes of flash. The GT devices include two two-channel 16-bit timers with 32 or 60 kbytes of flash. These devices also include 2 or 4 kbytes of RAM; an eight-channel, 10-bit ADC; SPI; I²C; two SCI ports; a 1.8 to 3.6V on-chip voltage regulator; an internal clock generator; low-voltage reset; and as many as 56 general-purpose I/O ports with software-programmable pullups.

Metrowerks' (www.metrowerks.com) CodeWarrior Development Studio, Special Edition with Processor Expert supports software development and works through the dedicated background-debugging-mode pin. The on-chip trigger and buffer hardware supports as many as nine trigger modes and can trace as many as eight flow changes to support re-creating the execution trace on the host (Picture).

Motorola, www.motorola.com/mcu.