NXP announces world's first dual supply voltage ARM Cortex-M0 mcus

The LPC1100LV series of mcus feature dual supply voltage of 1.65 to 1.95V VDD and 1.65 to 3.6V VIO. According to NXP, the series offers 50MIPS performance in a 2 x 2mm footprint with more than three times power reduction compared to similar 3.3V VDD devices. The platform is specifically designed for battery powered end applications ranging from mobile phones, tablets, Ultrabooks and mobile accessories to active cable, cameras and portable medical electronics. "High performance dual supply voltages generally aren't available in a single tiny package," said Jan Jaap Bezemer, director of marketing, microcontroller business line, NXP Semiconductors. "The LPC1100LV series uniquely combines these critical requirements for battery powered applications in the same device and enables our customers to create low power solutions not previously available." The LPC1100LV series incorporates NXP's latest proprietary embedded Flash with 256Byte erase sector and low leakage current. This, says NXP, enables it to handle linear current consumption at low clock frequency while reducing system power. The devices deliver 50MIPS of performance compared to the 1 to 5 MIPS performance typical of 8/16bit mcus. According to NXP, this high performance allows LPC1100LV to complete demanding tasks faster and to remain in active mode for a shorter period of time, further reducing the average current consumed by the device. The company notes that, given the same task, LPC1100LV's 1.65 1.95V VDD low voltage input offers more than three times power reduction compared to competitor Cortex-M0 devices using 3.3V VDD input, and more than 10 times compared to typical 8/16-bit MCUs. Potential applications include system security and authentication (including handling AES-256 encryption), system interface and controls (such as keypads and touchscreens), system peripheral controls (for audio and lighting), and for running software stacks (such as Bluetooth Low Energy radio). The LPC1100LV is available in NXP's 2 x 2mm chip scale package – the world's smallest 32bit mcus.