Processors bridge network technology gaps

National Semiconductor is claiming a major technology advance towards an industry-wide goal of creating a single, seamless worldwide network of networks.

National Semiconductor is claiming a major technology advance towards an industry-wide goal of creating a single, seamless worldwide network of networks.

National's new CP3000 family of embedded connectivity processors will dramatically simplify the creation of linked networks and connected devices.

The CP3000 family includes the hardware, software, development tools and technical support to simplify and reduce the design and qualification cycle of connected embedded applications.

National Semiconductor's CP3BT10, CP3BT13, CP3UB17 and CP3CN17 processors bridge the different connectivity and protocol standards in networks.

Until today, there was no easy, cost-effective way to connect different types of devices using wide-area, local-area or personal-area networks.

National's new family of chips essentially acts as a bridge between these different types of network standards.

"National is the only company we have seen currently offering such comprehensive connectivity products", said Russ Craig, Research Director of Aberdeen Group, a market analysis firm.

"The processor's size, performance and throughput are perfect for many devices, such as cell phones and other small applications.

National is well positioned to succeed in this market".

"The explosive growth of the Internet has given birth to various local and wide area network standards", said Joe Montalbo, Vice President for National's Device Connectivity Division.

"National's CP3000 family enables communications between networks and nodes with different standards and protocol stacks".

The first product family to be introduced by National's new Device Connectivity Division, the CP3000 processors include Flash program memory and a variety of embedded peripherals, such as USB, CAN, USART, SPI and AccessBus interfaces.

Also included on-chip is a fully embedded Bluetooth interface that includes baseband processing, a host protocol stack and dedicated profiles.

The CP3000 family is ideal for a variety of products including those that use Bluetooth technology in homes and vehicles, hands-free speaker systems, automobile entertainment systems, utilities metering, digital still and streaming cameras, standalone keyboards, universal headsets and digital multimedia speakers.

Today, for example, people who wish to download photos from a digital camera must deal with complex software, wires or swapping disks.

Soon, owners of cameras equipped with CP3000 Bluetooth embedded processors will merely place the camera next to any device with Internet access.

The network will recognise the camera and download images over a wireless network.

Other examples include cars that will be diagnosed remotely by a mechanic using a simple browser.

When parked in a garage, the mechanic will be able to perform tests or upload the latest engine or maintenance data.

"Consumer device manufacturers are well-versed in the intricacies of their products, but most are unfamiliar with RF and connectivity standards such as Bluetooth and CAN", Montalbo said.

"National is leveraging its core analogue, wireless and microcontroller technologies and infrastructure to develop a complete device connectivity solution to simplify the system design process".

In addition to the CP3000 processor hardware, National has qualified application-specific software modules available including interface drivers, driver software and protocol stacks.

Engineers may take advantage of the development platforms with tools, evaluation boards and technical support from National or its software partners.

Additional certified consultants worldwide will provide further support to make integration of these products even simpler.

The CP3BT10, CP3BT13, CP3UB17 and CP3CN17 connectivity processors feature National's power efficient CR16C 16bit RISC microcontroller core and a wealth of on-chip peripherals.

Each features 256Kbyte on-chip Flash, 10Kbyte on-chip RAM and an additional 8Kbyte of on-chip data Flash.

Additional functions and interfaces include versatile timer units, multifunction timers, audio interfaces, USART, programmable I/O ports and a watchdog timer.

The processors run from 0 to 24MHz and will be available in an extended temperature range of -40 to +85C.

Manufactured using National Semiconductor's advanced 0.25-micron CMOS process at its fabrication facility in South Portland, Maine, each device is optimised for a wide variety of connectivity applications.

Both the CP3BT10 and CP3BT13 connectivity processors include the Bluetooth baseband and allow the implementation of a fully embedded Bluetooth stack with a customer's application code.

Each interfaces easily with National's LMX5250/1 Bluetooth transceiver.

The processors also allow easy access from user-developed application code to Bluetooth functionality through a well-defined application programming interface (API).

This allows a designer to program the host protocol stack and dedicated profiles into the on-chip Flash program memory, thus eliminating the need for a separate host/system controller, saving cost, board space and power.

The CP3BT10 connectivity processor integrates USB, AccessBus and USART interfaces, while the CP3BT13 connectivity processor integrates CAN, AccessBus and USART interfaces.

The USB interface on the CP3BT10 makes it ideal for consumer and computing devices because of its high-speed serial interface, while the CAN interface on the CP3BT13 makes it ideal for electrically noisy environments in automotive and industrial applications.

The CP3UB17 and CP3CN17 connectivity processors are ideal for automotive, industrial, PC and consumer applications where Bluetooth technology is not required.

The CP3UB17 provides USB, AccessBus, I2C and SPI interfaces, while the CP3CN17 offers CAN, AccessBus and SPI interfaces.

All the CP3000 connectivity processors are sampling now.

For 1000-unit quantities in very small 48-pin chip scale packages, the CP3BT10 is $7.00, the CP3BT13 is $7.25, the CP3UB17 is $6.40 and the CP3CN17 is $6.50.

In 1000-unit quantities in a 100-pin LQFP, the CP3BT10 is $8.00, the CP3BT13 is $8.25, the CP3UB17 is $7.40 and the CP3CN17 is $7.50.

The LQFP package allows up to 8Mbit of external memory.

Production quantities will be available in first quarter 2003.

(This was Electronicstalk's Top Story on 14 November 2002).

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