EDN's 18th Annual Innovation Awards Finalists

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Category: Microcontrollers and Cores
WINNER: LPC2478 ARM-based microcontroller (NXP Semiconductors)

As microcontrollers integrate even more peripherals into the same package, they risk overtaxing the processor’s capabilities. NXP’s LPC2478 ARM7-based microcontroller splits the AHB bus into two so that the system can handle the data and processing loads to simultaneously support the integrated Ethernet, USB, and LCD (QVGA) interfaces in addition to the other more than one dozen serial peripherals in the system. The LPC2478 also features 512 kbytes of flash that supports 128-bit accesses and, along with a memory accelerator, enables the system to execute serially from flash directly at full speed, up to 72 MHz, without having to move the code into RAM. In addition to splitting the AHB bus to reduce the processor load, the architecture includes local RAM blocks for the Ethernet MAC, USB, and LCD interfaces. The system also includes dedicated DMA controllers for the Ethernet and USB ports, and a third general-purpose DMA controller is available.