RISC MCU Delivers 3.6 MIPS/mA

The MAXQ2000 RISC microcontroller achieves a performance level of 3.6 normalized MIPS per milliamp (MIPS/mA), claimed as the industry’s highest. The device comes in a 68-pin QFN and integrates 64 KB of flash memory, 2 KB of SRAM, a watchdog timer, two serial ports, an SPI master/slave port, three timers, 16 x 16 hardware multiplier, 32-bit binary clock, and a 128-segment LCD controller. Its LCD controller provides four common and 36 segment drivers to support a wide variety of configurations. Each segment pin can also be configured as general-purpose I/O. Said to be a new approach, the MCU employs a 16-bit instruction set, ALU, and data path. Based on a transfer-triggered architecture, each instruction is essentially a simple move instruction, allowing the device to perform almost all instructions in a single clock cycle. An evaluation kit is available that interfaces with an integrated development environment (IDE) and includes a JTAG interface board. The IDE includes a debugger, assembler/linker, time-limited version of the IAR C-compiler, and a simulator. Prices for the MCU start at $2.95 each/10,000. DALLAS SEMICONDUCTOR, Dallas, TX. (800) 998-8800.