Ultra-low power microcontroller recognised with technology award

6 October 2004 News

Frost & Sullivan has named Texas Instruments a '2004 Technology Innovation Award' winner in the world microcontroller market for its MSP430 ultra-low power technology. Frost & Sullivan called the MSP430 family of ultra-low-power 16-bit RISC mixed-signal processors the 'ultimate solution for battery-powered measurement applications.'

"Binding the code effective architecture with signal-chain-on-chip and unique inherent low-power design has enabled Texas Instruments to develop the MSP430 microcontroller to stand apart from the rest of the products in the market," said Ramanan Rajagopalan, research analyst, Frost & Sullivan. "Combining the strength of Texas Instruments in embedded analog circuits and low power technology, MSP430 has proven to be the cost-effective solution for a wide spectrum of applications including utility metering, handheld meter, security systems and gas meters."

The MSP430 offers a true signal-chain-on-chip (SCoC) solution, which includes 12-bit ADCs, DACs and direct memory access (DMA). The MSP430 family includes a flexible clock system with five low-power modes, enabling superior ultra-low power performance. The family features a typical standby current consumption as low as 0,8 μA with a realtime clock function active. According to TI, the MSP430's total power consumption is 10 times lower than competitive devices due to the fast instruction execution and its ability to start-up from standby in less than six microseconds with a fully synchronised high-speed system clock.

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