Microprocessor helps boost battery life

The SH7721 microprocessor integrates a TFT controller with up to 1024 x 1024 resolution and with an associated, dedicated 2.4Kbyte line-buffer RAM to prevent flickering.

Renesas Technology Europe has released the SH7721 microprocessor for battery-operated devices that use TFT displays and Linux user interfaces.

The SH7721 SH-3-based microprocessor has 170 DMIPS performance, 32Kbyte unified cache and a five-stage pipeline.

It integrates a TFT controller with up to 1024 x 1024 resolution, depending on colour depth and with an associated, dedicated 2.4Kbyte line-buffer RAM to prevent flickering.

Further support for user interfaces includes an analogue to digital convertor (ADC) that can be used for touch screen control.

The device also features USB host/function and many serial ports including two UARTS with 128byte FIFO, IIC, multimedia card-Interface (MMC), Smartcard-Interface, IrDA and others.

The peripheral set is completed by many timers including a real-time-clock (RTC) and a PCMCIA 2.1 compliant PC card controller (PCC) to enable easy extension of the system using readily available PCMCIA cards.

Finally a flexible bus-state-controller (BSC) enables direct connection to Flash, RAM and SDRAM.

A six-channel DMA offloads the CPU from data movements.

To facilitate long battery life or USB-powered operation, the SH7721 only consumes 600mW when everything is in full operation and at full speed.

The power consumption can be further reduced using clock gearing and low-power modes such as sleep and standby.

For example, in standby mode and with the RTC maintained, the device consumes only 50uA (max).

The SH7721 is available in two RoHS-compliant 256-pin BGA packages.

The packages measure only 11 x 11mm for extremely compact telecommunications applications, or 17x17mm for less space-constrained consumer/industrial applications.

The device is supported by a reference platform (MS7721RP01), which is available ex stock and supported by Renesas Technology's popular E10A debugger (HS0005KCU01H without trace, HS0005KCU02H with trace).

C-Compiler options are the Renesas C Compiler as well as the free-of-charge GNU C Compiler from KPIT.

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