Flash 8-Bit Microcontrollers Match Power Consumption Of ROM Versions

March 31, 2003

A new crop of 8-bit flash-based microcontrollers (MCUs), designed to use as little power as possible, is on its way. Thus, they're a viable alternative to ROM-based products. Developed by Hitachi Semiconductor America Inc. (www.hitachi.com) and Toshiba America Inc. (www.toshiba.com/taec), they attain their low power by using a variety of power-conserving modes like disabling the flash memory.

Toshiba's TMP86FM48 can run at 8 MHz on 1.8 V or 16 MHz at 2.7 V. The 32 kbytes of flash memory can be reprogrammed using the on-board UART. Nonvolatile storage is provided by 512 bytes of EEPROM. The flash memory can be disabled. Programmable security protection is supported. Peripherals include timers, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and an LED driver. Pricing starts at $6.67.

Hitachi's H8/38004 runs at 8 MHz but can downshift 1 MHz while drawing 200 mA. It uses 1.2 mA running at 32 kHz in watch mode. It can switch to full speed in 20 ms. The MCU comes in 32-kbyte flash and 1 kbyte of SRAM. The 16-bit counter can run when the CPU is asleep. Peripherals include an LCD controller, a 10-bit ADC, a UART, and a two-channel PWM timer. Flash pricing starts at $3.75. ROM versions are available.

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our template and send to me along with a signed release form.

Check out my blog, AltEmbedded on Electronic Design, as well as his latest articles on this site that are listed below.

You can visit my social media via these links:

I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence.