Motorola's New FLASH MCUs Diminish Need for EEPROMs in Embedded Systems; ELMARC Selects New 68HC908GR8 MCU for Cost-Effective Production of Appliance Electronic Control Units.Business Editors & High-Tech Writers AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2001 Motorola, Inc.'s (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :MOT) Semiconductor Products Sector continues to expand the benefits and flexibility of its Flash microcontrollers (MCUs) with the introduction of the 68HC908GR8 and the 68HC908GR4. The new chips, derivatives of the existing 68HC908GP32, offer enhanced performance by extending the reliability and data retention of the embedded Flash memory to typically 100,000 write/erase cycles and 50-year data retention (running at 55 degrees Celsius). As a result, most embedded systems that require non-volatile storage of temporary or changing data no longer need separate electrically erasable e·ras·a·ble adj. 1. Capable of being erased: erasable ink. 2. Capable of producing something that can be erased: an erasable pen. read only memory (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. ) chips. "Our appliance customers need new versions of products delivered `yesterday' and Motorola's advanced 68HC08 family of Flash microcontrollers gives us the flexibility to meet that challenge," said Giorgio Testa, owner of ELMARC (Ancona, Italy), a manufacturer of electronic controls for appliances. "We have used the 68HC08 family for some time and chose the new 68HC908GR8 because the very fast programming times have drastically cut our production costs. In addition, the chip enables in-application programming, which allows us to run a test program in the board before programming it with the latest release of our application software." Motorola has long been a leader in Flash memory technology and was the first semiconductor manufacturer to ship production volumes of Flash microcontrollers. The new chips feature Flash memory that can encode 64 bytes in just two milliseconds and an entire array in as little as one second. In addition, the Flash memory has virtual EEPROM capability, programming at three (3) to five (5) volts. The improved write/erase cycling allows many OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and design engineers to use the Flash memory for data storage as well as program storage. The 68HC908GR4 with four Kbytes and the 68HC908GR8 with eight Kbytes of Flash memory are well suited for applications such as coin validators, security system control panels, building automation, thermostats, dashboards and industrial control instrumentation. The new chips help to reduce customers' systems costs with an advanced phased locked loop (PLL PLL - phase-locked loop ) feature that allows a lower cost and lower speed (32 kHz) crystal while still providing high speed operations. Other features of the new chips include an on-chip timebase module that eliminates the need for a real-time clock and auto wakeup circuitry and a rich instruction set that allows optimum code density with C programming. Price and Availability The 68HC908GR4 and the 68HC908GR8 are available now in 28 PDIP (Plastic DIP) See DIP. , 32 QFP (Quad FlatPack) A square, surface mount chip package that has leads on all four sides and comes in several varieties. PQFP (Plastic QFP) may refer to all of the following QFP types. All quad flatpacks use gull-wing leads, except for the CQFP, which stick straight out. and 28 SOIC (Small Outline IC) A small-dimension, plastic, rectangular, surface mount chip package that uses gull-wing pins extending outward. See gull-wing lead, SOJ and chip package. packages. For volumes less than 50,000 pieces, the suggested list price is (US)$2.25 for the 68HC908GR4 and (US)$3.30 for the 68HC908GR8. About Motorola Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2000 were $37.6 billion. As the world's No. 1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector creates DigitalDNA(tm) system-on-chip solutions for a connected world. Our strong focus on communications and networking enables customers to develop smarter, simpler, safer and synchronized products for the person, work team, home and automobile. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $7.9 billion (USD USD In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the U.S. Dollar. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) in 2000. http://www.motorola.com/semiconductors/ Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications solutions and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 1999 were $33.1 billion. http://www.motorola.com MOTOROLA, the Stylized styl·ize tr.v. styl·ized, styl·iz·ing, styl·iz·es 1. To restrict or make conform to a particular style. 2. To represent conventionally; conventionalize. M Logo and all other trademarks indicated as such herein are trademarks of Motorola, Inc.(R) Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. (c)2001 Motorola, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Reader Inquiry Response: Motorola SPS (Standby Power System) A UPS system that switches to battery backup upon detection of power failure. See UPS. SPS - Symbolic Programming System. Assembly language for IBM 1620. P.O. Box 17927 Denver, CO 80217 |
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