USB microcontroller cuts current, handles 1.5-Mbps flow

-- EDN, 12/7/2000

You can get Mitsubishi's M37534 USB microcontroller, an 8-bit device housed in a 7×7-mm package, in one-time-programmable and mask-programmed versions; both fully comply with the USB 1.1 specification. In USB "suspend mode," the device's power consumption drops to 300 µA, including the USB transceiver, the 3.3V reference, and the pullup resistor. This power consumption is 40% less than the USB specification requires.

Other features of this USB microcontroller, which targets low-speed USB applications, include an external interrupt input; 14 interrupt levels with eight interrupt-response vectors; an eight-channel, 10-bit A/D converter; as many as 33 programmable I/O ports; three 8-bit timers; and a 16-bit watchdog timer. The device is available with various amounts of ROM and RAM; it's housed in 32-pin LQFPs, as well as in packages that are backward compatible with previous parts. The one-time-programmable ROM version costs $11.40 in sample quantities, and the mask-programmed version costs $7.60.

Mitsubishi Electric and Electronics USA, www.mitsubishichips.com.

—by Bill Schweber