EDN's 28th annual microprocessor / microcontroller directory

Editor's note: The most recent edition of the Microprocessor Directory is always available at www.edn.com/microdirectory.

Click the following PDF button for a PDF version of this directory introduction and the microprocessor/microcontroller tables, as they appeared in the print version of EDN. Scroll to the bottom of this Web page for links to text entries on the individual processors and their corresponding PDFs.

"Highest performance" is a sexy phrase, and, in the spectrum of microprocessors and microcontrollers, wider device architectures push what highest performance means on a nearly daily basis. Highest performance is not sexy because it is the lowest cost or lowest power consumption; it is sexy because, as the performance curve continues to exponentially push forward, the feasible frontier of never-before-implemented applications expands. How many designers would prefer incrementally evolving an existing design than to demonstrate their engineering brilliance with a novel approach or design implemented in the next new killer function or application? The effects of continued integration and higher feature density continue to move the thresholds for lowest cost and power consumption and expand the new application frontier. But these effects are less noticeable because they have more to do with the inclusion of "already-invented" capabilities in familiar applications that are more mature than new in their life cycle.

This year has seen new processor architectures announced or brought to market across the processing spectrum, and evolving device families continue to deliver yet higher performance, lower cost, lower power consumption, and more integrated features, despite the economic downturn.

This directory includes only microprocessors and microcontrollers. It does not include network processors, DSPs, and other logic devices that do not support software programming because EDN publishes other directories of those types of devices; however, the devices included go beyond standard or catalog processors and include processor cores and programmable-logic devices with embedded processor cores. This directory contains so much information that we could not include all of it in the printed version. The tables provide a consolidated view of the vendor-device families and identify an assortment of architectural and device features that will help you quickly compare important processor differences. Please click on the links below to read the individual microprocessor/microcontroller text entries. These entries are available in both HTML and PDF versions.

Microprocessors/microcontrollers A through K  

Microprocessors/microcontrollers L through Q  

Microprocessors/microcontrollers R through Z