NEC Electronics America Inc.'s 16bit 78KOR series of flash microcontrollers (MCUs) boasts low power consumption of 1.8mW/MIPS and six times the power/performance ratio of the company's 8bit 78K0 MCUs. The units are aimed at household appliance and industrial systems markets.
Consisting of 30 devices in packages with pins ranging from 64 to 100, and flash memory configurations ranging from 64Kbytes to 256KBytes, the series provides engineers with an extensive variety of design options, according to NEC.
A three-stage pipeline enables high-speed processing and supports performance up to 13MIPS. The series also features power-on reset functions, voltage-detection circuits, on-chip oscillators, calendar timers and low EMI. The 16bit 78K0R instruction set includes the 8bit 78K0 instruction set, enabling the upward compatibility of 78K0 devices with most 78K0R products. With a smooth migration path, customers can reuse existing resources to improve development efficiency even more.
With NEC Electronics' 0.15μm process technology and embedded flash memory based on SuperFlash technology from Silicon Storage Technology Inc., 78K0R series devices are priced competitively with 16bit mask ROM devices.
NEC Electronics America provides an array of tools to support efficient development of all of its MCUs, including those in the new 16bit series. The company's tool suite includes on-chip debuggers and the Minicube2 debugger/flash programmer combination, as well as a software simulator and Applilet sample code generator program. To further accelerate the development cycle, NEC Electronics America offers its own flash programming services as well as services provided by a number of third-party vendors.
In recent years, consumer electronics products, household appliances and industrial systems traditionally controlled by 8bit MCUs have grown increasingly sophisticated, making higher performance levels, lower power consumption and competitive pricing of greater concern to manufacturers.
Samples of the 16bit series are expected to be available starting in April 2006 with volume production scheduled to begin in October 2006. Pricing for the 100-pin 78K0R/KG3 MCU with 256KBytes of memory is $5 in 1,000-lot orders. Combined volume production for the 30 devices in the series is expected to reach one million units per month in fiscal year 2007. Pricing and availability are subject to change.
