Intro World's First Microprocessor Supervisor With EEPROM.CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 1998--Summit Microelectronics today announced the availability of a pair of precision microprocessor supervisory circuits that allow users to improve system performance and at the same time to reduce the number of devices on a circuit board. The new devices, the S4242 and S42WD42, monitor the microprocessor supply voltage within a system and generate active-hi and active-lo reset outputs if that voltage falls below a certain preset level. A separate analog input Refers to hardware interfaces that accept non-digital signals. For decades, all the plugs and sockets on traditional audio and video equipment connected analog lines (see illustration below). allows a second voltage to be monitored and if this input voltage falls below the threshold, a non-maskable interrupt Non-Maskable Interrupt - (NMI) An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680x0 or the NMI line on an 80x86. In contrast with a priority interrupt (which might be ignored, although that is unlikely), an NMI is *never* ignored. will be generated. "The second voltage could be the system's unregulated supply, in which case the devices can provide early warning of a power failure," explained Rich Palm, Summit's vice president of Marketing. "It could also be a second voltage on a dual voltage PCB PCB: see polychlorinated biphenyl. PCB in full polychlorinated biphenyl Any of a class of highly stable organic compounds prepared by the reaction of chlorine with biphenyl, a two-ring compound. or it could be used as a low battery voltage warning. The S42WD42 has all of these features plus it incorporates a watchdog timer A clock circuit that keeps counting from a set number down to zero. If the event it is monitoring occurs before it reaches zero, it resets to the starting number and starts counting down again. ," Palm added. The S4242 devices are the world's first full feature microprocessor supervisors that include on-board nonvolatile memory See non-volatile memory. , enabling designers to eliminate one or more circuits in a typical microprocessor-based system. The EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM) A rewritable memory chip that holds its content without power. Although EEPROMs spawned flash memory, EEPROMs are byte addressable at the write level, whereas flash chips must erase a block of bytes before rewriting. within the device communicates via a standard 2-wire serial interface (I2C I2C Inter-Integrated Circuit I2C Intelligent Interface Controller I2C Intelligent Controller ). Incorporating a reset circuit with the EEPROM in the S4242 provides WRITE protection of the memory during low supply-voltage conditions. Palm explained "The importance of this feature is frequently overlooked and it may result in data corruption problems. "Hence, the S4242 family offers a more compact and reliable system solution at or below the price of a traditional microprocessor supervisory circuit," Palm added. The S4242 is available for 3- and 5-volt systems and operates with a 50 micronA max supply current at 5V. When the EEPROM is being programmed supply current will increase to 3mA maximum for approximately 10ms. The 4k-bit section of nonvolatile memory is organized as 512 x 8 and is designed for systems that require 1,000,000 erase/write cycles and unlimited read cycles. Data retention is specified as 100 years, with or without power applied, and after the execution of 1,000,000 erase/write cycles. The S4242 is available for operation over the industrial temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees Centigrade centigrade /cen·ti·grade/ (sen´ti-grad) having 100 gradations (steps or degrees); see under scale. cen·ti·grade adj. Celsius. . The circuit is available in surface-mount SO-8, and 8-pin PDIP (Plastic DIP) See DIP. packages, with prices stating at $1.67 in 1,000-unit quantities. Since its formation in January 1997, Summit has introduced three families of analog circuits, all of which use on-chip EEPROM cells for trimming the analog circuits. Summit Microelectronics, Inc. focuses on the integration of analog and EEPROM technologies to provide cost-effective solutions to a variety of applications in the telecommunications, consumer and automotive markets. Its website is www.summitmicro.com.
CONTACTS: Summit Microelectronics Inc.
Rick Orlando, 408/378-6461 (President & CEO)
Rich Palm, 408/378-6461 (VP of Marketing)
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