Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Freescale Semiconductor | Subject: MPC555 and the MPC566
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 02 April 2003
MCUs take to temperature extremes aloft
Motorola has released the industry's first 32bit microcontrollers specified to operate over temperature ranges from -55 to +125C.
Motorola has released the industry's first 32bit microcontrollers specified to operate over temperature ranges from -55 to +125C The latest versions of the 32bit MPC500 family of PowerPC microcontrollers meet a growing need for high-performance MCUs designed to tolerate the harsh environmental conditions of avionics and aerospace applications
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 23 Jun 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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The award-winning MPC555 and the MPC566 are designed to beat the previous temperature range of -40 to +125C.
Offering customers these devices designed to perform at extreme temperatures (down to -55C) can help simplify the development of high-performance applications.
Previously, many customers would have hired independent test firms to test and screen for devices in extreme temperature ranges to meet the rigid environmental requirements.
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Now these devices have been engineered to function in conditions where most others are unable to work.
Prior to the availability of these extreme temperature devices, a heater may have been placed near the electronics module to ensure operation at high altitudes where temperature is often colder than -40C.
With these latest devices - the first available at this temperature range - the electronics module may now be able to be placed at the end of a wing, for instance, without a heater and still be expected to perform.
Both devices incorporate embedded Flash memory, a dual-precision floating-point unit and highly sophisticated on-chip peripherals, making them well suited for a variety of high-velocity, fast acceleration aerospace and avionics applications, including helicopter controls, fuel and altimeter control and global positioning systems.
"We're pleased to be able to meet the special requirements of customers in the avionics and aerospace industries by offering products that operate in extreme environments", said Dr Franz Fink, Vice President and General Manager of Motorola's 32bit Embedded Controller Division.
"Motorola continues to find ways to enable the unique demands of designers of sophisticated control systems".
The MPC555 and MPC566 feature: 40 or 56MHz PowerPC cores; 26 to 56Kbyte of static RAM; rigorous environmental testing; queued serial multichannel modules for UART and SPI functionality to support off-chip serial communications; two A/D convertor modules with up to 40 analogue input channels; two or three controller area network modules; modular I/O systems including 22 timing channels with additional functionality for applications including PWM; support for real-time operating systems; JTAG and Background Debug modules; and pin-compatibility with existing versions.
As with other Motorola microcontroller products, a comprehensive suite of hardware and software development tools is available for the MPC555 and MPC566 devices to help simplify and shorten customers' development cycles.
Development support is available from Motorola through Metrowerks as well as from leading independent tool developers providing processor probes, logic analysers, debuggers, simulation development environments, and C and C++ compilers.
Motorola offers a variety of resources to customers to help ease design efforts, shorten time to market and lower overall development costs including: a large library of MCU application notes; searchable technical MCU frequently asked questions and answers online; and downloadable software examples from Motorola's website.
Both devices are available for production orders through Motorola and authorised distributors.
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