16-Bit RISC MCU Attacks DSP And LCD Chores

Needing less than 250 mA/MIPS, the 16-bit MAXQ2000 microcontroller is certain to find its way into portable, low-power applications. The chip's Harvard architectural design incorporates DSP-style instructions so it can use a hardware multiplier and a 48-bit accumulator. Also incorporated is a 132-segment LCD controller.

Developed by Maxim, the MAXQ2000 serves up 64 kbytes of flash memory and 2 kbytes of RAM. It uses a 16-level hardware stack, and three auto increment/decrement pointers segment the 16 registers. Additional peripherals include a serial peripheral interface and Maxim 1-Wire port, two serial ports, three counter/timers, an 8-bit alarm timer, a 32-bit real-time clock, and a watchdog timer. The chip also has 50 general-purpose I/O pins and a JTAG debug interface.

Pricing for the MAXQ2000 microcontroller in a 68-pin QFN starts at $2.95. Evaluation kits are available. Development tools including C compilers are provided by IAR Systems.