Motorola has introduced a new M•CORE Flash microcontroller (MCU) family. Its first member, the MMC2107, is a new 32 bit chip designed to meet the needs of customers designing high-performance, cost and power- sensitive applications, such as vending machines, building management and heating-ventilation-air conditioning systems, etc.
The feature set of the new MMC2107 was determined with significant inputs from engineers at Motorola's authorised semiconductor distributors as well as dozens of distribution customers who design embedded control systems for a wide variety of end products.
"Over the last year, Motorola has focused on providing standard microcontrollers and microprocessors, application software and development tools for customers who buy through the distribution channel," said David West, Vice President at Arrow Electronics, one of Motorola's authorised distributors. "The new standard M•CORE product coupled with the Motorola brand name - and support that goes with it - provide an unmatched value. Customers get the performance of a 32 bit processor with the high level of peripheral integration typical of Motorola's 8 and 16 bit microcontrollers, all at a very cost-effective price."
Features and applications
The new M•CORE MCU was designed using Motorola's vast library of intellectual property (IP) and its system-on-a-chip (SoC) design Motorola plans to expand this M•CORE family with chips that will be pin compatible with the MMC2107 and have consistent memory maps. On the family roadmap are additional MCUs with different memory options that are planned to be announced in 2001. These chips will re-use the peripherals on the MMC2107, allowing customers to leverage their experience and code when migrating to other family members.
"The positive influence of flash memory and mixed-signal on MCUs has provided an opportunity for vendors with those unique capabilities to make an impact on the industry", according to a recent analyst report written by Tom Starnes, a Chief Analyst with Dataquest. "One aspect of the SoC that is an MCU - having standalone flash or analog capability and the ability to integrate those features on-chip with the logic of a microcontroller - can separate the men from the boys."
Optimised for embedded control applications, the new MMC2107 suits designers of space-constrained devices. It also consumes less current than a comparable discrete solution so that portable versions of these end products may be made smaller and lighter.
The MMC2107 uses an M•CORE 32 bit microRISC central processing unit (CPU) which provides fast interrupt handling, low-power consumption and very high code density. Motorola's flash memory embedded on-board is in-circuit and in-application programmable, allowing OEMs to program late in the manufacturing cycle and make upgrades remotely in the field. It integrates both digital and analog peripherals, including a powerful 16 bit timer, communication interfaces and a queued ADC, as well as 8 KB of SRAM. A similar discrete solution comprising a 32 bit microRISC CPU, Flash memory, SRAM and ADC would require four or more separate chips and a substantial amount of printed circuit board area.
Motorola offers three levels of evaluation kits, all of which include a GNU compiler and debugger: an economical evaluation board and an evaluation that includes a universal platform board with additional flash and SRAM, as well as connectors for multiple communication ports.
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