PRODUCT INNOVATIONS
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Gleichmann Electronics - Flash microcontrollers
New low power 16-bit MCUs guarantee long battery life
The 22 new 16-bit All Flash microcontrollers (MCUs) of the 78K0R/Kx3-L
series from NEC Electronics (Distribution: Gleichmann Electronics)
require only 1.5 milliwatts (mW) per million instructions per second
(Dhrystone 1.1) and therefore, currently offer the industry’s
highest power/performance ratio. The new MCUs are based on NEC
Electronics' high-performance 16-bit 78K0R CPU core.
Many features have been optimized. For example, power consumption at 20
MHz operation has been reduced by 20% to 6.5 milliamperes (mA) and at
10 MHz operation by 10 percent to 3.5 mA. Even more significant is the
optimization of the power management circuitry, which is reflected in
the standby power consumption. When only the real-time clock is active
the power consumption of the 78K0R/Kx3-L family reduces to 1.0
microampere (µA). This was previously, an average of 2.4
µA. By reducing the internal supply voltage from 2.4 V to 1.8 V
in "low consumption current mode", the overall power consumption can be
further reduced.
On-chip oscillator circuits allow the MCUs to be operated at a
different clock speeds of 20 MHz, 8 MHz or in a special power-saving
mode 1 MHz. Thanks to a guaranteed error rate of less than 1 percent at
operating frequencies of 8 and 20 MHz , the need to add an external
quartz/resonator, even for asynchronous data transfers, is eliminated.
Especially interesting for sensor applications; an optimized
12-channel, 10-bit A/D converter circuit, which is also integrated on
the 78K0R/Kx3-L family, reduces the conversion time of an analog input
into a digital output from 6 to 3 microseconds (µs). In addition,
one internal operational amplifier and two internal comparators allow a
wide range of analog data to be measured.
Because of the low power consumption and the extensive peripheral
functions, the 22 new MCUs of the 78K0R/Kx3-L family are ideally suited
for use in portable equipment or with sensor-equipped systems such as
fire alarms, security devices, meters, industrial sensors, hand-held
medical diagnostics devices as well as data acquisition and
point-of-sale (POS) terminals.
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