Safety MCUs Ready For Medical, Industrial And Transportation Apps

The Hercules safety microcontroller (MCU) platform for medical, industrial and transportation applications consists of three ARM Cortex-based microcontroller families that deliver scalable performance, connectivity, memory and safety features. The MCUs implement safeguards in hardware to maximize performance and reduce software overhead. The RM4x MCU family operates at speeds up to 220 MHz and is based on dual ARM Cortex-R4F floating-point cores in lockstep. It supports single and double precision floating-point math to execute complex math and achieves the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61508 SIL-3 safety standard. Other features include Ethernet, CAN, and USB connectivity and up to 3 MB flash and 256 KB RAM. Operating up to 180 MHz and based on dual ARM Cortex-R4F floating-point cores in lockstep, the Hercules TMS570 MCU family supports single and double precision floating-point math. It includes Ethernet, CAN, and FlexRay connectivity and up to 3 MB flash and 256 KB RAM. Based on an ARM Cortex-M3 core, the Hercules TMS470M MCU family drives at speeds up to 80 MHz and is AEC-Q100 qualified. Offering LIN and CAN support, it provides 320 KB to 640 KB flash and 16 KB to 48 KB RAM. Pricing for Hercules MCUs range from $4.60 to $15.70 each/10,000. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC., Dallas, TX. (800) 477-8924.