Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Texas Instruments (April 2001-March 2006) | Subject: MSP430F42x0
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 15 April 2005
Microcontroller is complete signal chain
on a chip
The MSP430F42x0 generation of microcontrollers is billed as the industry's first low cost, signal-chain-on-a-chip MCU solution for high precision sensing and measurement applications.
The MSP430F42x0 generation of microcontrollers is billed as the industry's first low cost, signal-chain-on-a-chip (SCoC) MCU solution for high precision sensing and measurement applications The MSP430F42x0 MCU's ultra-low-power core and complete chain of integrated peripherals such as a 16bit sigma delta analogue to digital convertor (ADC), up to 32Kbyte of Flash memory and a liquid crystal display (LCD) driver with an internal charge pump let designers reduce overall system costs and development time for single-chip portable multimeters, altimeters, industrial weight scales, thermostats and instrumentation and sensor measurement applications
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Starting at $2.95 in 10,000 quantities, the MSP430F42x0 MCU's unmatched combination of performance, power efficiency and integration provides signal-chain-on-chip functionalities that previously have been unavailable.
The integrated 16bit ADC has five differential input channels, up to 8Ksample/s and a typical signal to noise and distortion ratio (SINAD) of 84dB.
This, combined with the 12bit digital to analogue convertor's 1us settling time, lets designers leverage closed loop control to achieve the high levels of measurement and accuracy today's portable medical and industrial applications require.
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The 16bit ADC has a programmable gain amplifier, 1.2V voltage reference and an input buffer to eliminate the need for external signal conditioning for most applications.
All the peripherals have an option to minimise power consumption.
The integration of up to 32Kbyte of Flash memory and LCD driver that maintains contrast control down to an input voltage of 1.8V reduces board space and build of materials by removing the need for an EEPROM and external LCD charge pump.
The MSP430F42x0 MCUs are ideal for customers looking for higher precision measurement in a smaller form factor.
Portable altimeters, for example, that are as small as a quarter including the LCD display can now be integrated into almost any portable device.
In the medical industry, the MSP43F4x70 MCU's optimised peripherals are ideal for enabling highly precise measurements for more accurate, clinical quality readings such as those from a blood cholesterol meter.
MSP430F42x0 MCUs are designed to work in the harsh environments typically found in industrial and medical applications.
When a crystal fails due to moisture or a foreign substance during active or any low-power mode, the MSP430F42x0 is able to acknowledge the failure, re-start the on-chip clock system oscillator and generate a nonmaskable interrupt to service the condition.
Battery replacement in high precision equipment can cause voltage fluctuations.
The zero-power brown-out reset (BOR) function is designed to reset the MSP430 during a low voltage condition below specification preventing an unpredictable behaviour on the device.
The MSP430F4270 MCU's 2.5V minimum voltage for Flash in-system programming and erasing and 16bit ADC extends the life of alkaline battery-powered systems by 50%.
The MSP430 MCU's hallmark ultra-low-power platform features a typical real time clock standby current of 1.1uA and a 250uA active mode that lets engineers tune system clocking to precisely meet the power requirements for their application.
Fast instruction execution enabled by a modern 16bit RISC CPU coupled with the ability to start up from standby in less than 6us with a fully synchronised high-speed system clock results in total power consumption that is ten times lower than that of competitive devices.
MSP430F42x0 MCUs are specified for operation from 1.8 to 3.6V and are fully software-compatible with all existing MSP430 devices.
Designers can start development today with the $149 Flash emulation tool (FET) MSP-FET430U48, which includes a new USB-based, JTAG interface target board and a complete integrated development environment including a debugger, assembler/linker and C-complier.
The tool chain supports real-time in-system development, accessing the device's embedded emulation logic that includes programming, full-speed operation, breakpoint and clock control capabilities.
The MSP430F4270 MCU will feature 32Kbyte of Flash memory, with the F4260 and F4250 MCUs featuring 24 and 16Kbyte of Flash memory, respectively.
All three devices include 256byte RAM, and 32 input output channels (I/Os).
Samples of MSP430F42x0 MCUs are available today with volume production in May 2005.
Pricing will start from $2.95 in 10,000-piece quantities (suggested resale pricing).
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