MCUs set benchmark for power/processing

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jun 20, 2008

Each of the 22 new all-Flash MCUs in the NEC 78K0R/Kx3-L series requires only 1.5mW/DMIPS.

Available now from Gleichmann Sunrise, the latest microcontrollers from NEC Electronics are billed as offering the industry's highest power/performance ratio.

Based on NEC Electronics' high-performance 16bit 78K0R CPU core, each of the 22 new all-Flash MCUs in the NEC 78K0R/Kx3-L series requires only 1.5mW/DMIPS.

Power consumption at 20MHz operation has been reduced by 20% to 6.5mA and at 10MHz operation by 10% to 3.5mA.

Even more significant is the optimisation of the power management circuitry, which is reflected in the standby power consumption.

When only the real-time clock is active the power consumption of the 78K0R/Kx3-L family reduces to 1.0uA.

This was previously an average of 2.4uA.

By reducing the internal supply voltage from 2.4 to 1.8V in "low consumption current mode", the overall power consumption can be further reduced.

On-chip oscillator circuits allow the MCUs to be operated at a different clock speeds of 20MHz, 8MHz or in a special power-saving mode 1MHz.

Thanks to a guaranteed error rate of less than 1% at operating frequencies of 8 and 20MHz, the need to add an external quartz/resonator, even for asynchronous data transfers, is eliminated.

Especially interesting for sensor applications; an optimised 12-channel 10bit A/D convertor circuit, which is also integrated on the 78K0R/Kx3-L family, reduces the conversion time of an analogue input into a digital output from 6 to 3us.

In addition, one internal operational amplifier and two internal comparators allow a wide range of analogue data to be measured.

Because of the low power consumption and the extensive peripheral functions, the 22 new MCUs of the 78K0R/Kx3-L family are ideally suited for use in portable equipment or with sensor-equipped systems such as fire alarms, security devices, meters, industrial sensors, handheld medical diagnostics devices as well as data acquisition and point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

Samples will be available from the third quarter of 2008.

Start of volume production is planned for the end of 2008.