32bit micro touches on PDA applications

A Toshiba Electronics Europe product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Oct 6, 2003

A new 32bit CISC microprocessor combines high-speed operation with peripherals and functions designed to simplify the development of PDA-style applications based around touch screen user interfaces.

A new 32bit CISC microprocessor from Toshiba combines high-speed operation with peripherals and functions designed to simplify the development of PDAs, point-of-sale terminals, and other PDA-style applications based around touch screen user interfaces.

Toshiba's new TMP92CH21 microprocessor is a high-speed device that minimises component count by offering key PDA functions such as a colour LCD controller, a large internal 16Kbyte RAM, a USB 1.1 controller, a touch screen interface, an I2S (Inter-IC Sound) interface, and 8Kbyte of boot ROM.

The LCD controller supports up to 4096 colours for TFT displays, and up to 256 colours in the case of STN displays, and the onboard RAM allows for internal storage of key display data and program information.

The new device provides interfaces and control functionality for direct connection to NAND Flash and SDRAM and has an internal memory management unit that allows external memory to be expanded up to a capacity of 512Mbyte.

In addition to the dedicated PDA-style peripherals, the device also features a two-channel UART, an IrDA infra-red interface, and a melody/alarm output.

More general-purpose peripherals such as a 10bit A/D convertor, 8 and 16bit timers, a watchdog timer, and a real-time clock are also provided.

Based on Toshiba's TLCS-900/H1 32bit CPU core, the TMP92CH21 will operate at up to 40MHz for minimum instruction times of just 50ns.

This core operates with voltages of between 3.0 and 3.6V and combines four register banks for real-time control with an eight-channel micro DMA controller.

Three halt modes provide different standby options for minimising power consumption based on specific application conditions.

In order to support application designers, Toshiba has developed a reference board that will speed the evaluation, development and prototyping of solutions based around the TMP92CH21.

This board features the microprocessor, a full-colour LCD display, and a variety of components commonly used in PDA-style applications.

The TMP92CH21 is supplied in a 144-pin LQFP package format.