SiLabs makes first foray into 32bit mcu market
1 min read
Having previously based its microcontroller products on the 8bit 8051 core, Silicon Labs has launched a 32bit mcu range based on the ARM Cortex-M3 core.
The move, says the company, brings 'unprecedented design flexibility' to the 32bit market.
The Precision32 family includes 32 footprint compatible devices, with USB as an option. The parts are being targeted at a range of applications, including portable medical devices and home automation systems.
"We've engineered the Precision32 family to give embedded developers a better 32bit alternative, with superior design flexibility, peripheral integration, analogue performance and ultra low power – all at very competitive prices," said Mike Salas, general manager of Silicon Labs' mcu products.
Responding to what it sees as a lack of architectural flexibility in 32bit mcus, particularly for pinout and peripheral placement, Silicon Labs has developed a dual crossbar technology and a drag and drop GUI. Using these, developers can choose their analogue and digital peripherals and their pin locations.
"We also support developers with a highly integrated and comprehensive hardware and software ecosystem with free software tools," said Salas.
Silicon Labs has also applied its low power design technology to the devices. As a result, active current consumption is 22mA at 80MHz, equivalent to 275µA/MHz, and sleep current is said to be two orders of magnitude less than that of other 32bit devices – 0.35µA with the real time clock enabled and 4kbyte of ram supported.
The devices, available in production quantities, feature from 32 to 256kbyte of flash memory and can be supplied in five leaded and leadless packages.
