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TI adds to Stellaris MCUs, launches Sitara ARM-based line

 

Texas Instruments has released further details of the 30-plus ARMcore- based microcontrollers and microprocessors that it released at the ARM TechCon3 meeting in Santa Clara, California. In this first major addition to its ARM MCU line since completing the acquisition of Luminary Micro earlier in 2009, TI has expanded the Stellaris line of microcontrollers with 29 new parts; it has also introduced a new name, Sitara, which will comprise embedded processors based on Cortex-A8 and ARM9 cores—Stellaris parts use the Cortex-M3 core.

Aiming to capture a greater share of the industrial and medical embedded-processor market, the extra 29 Stellaris parts add new packaging, connectivity, temperature and peripheral options to the range. Connectivity is key, according to TI’s Jean Anne Booth, to the scalability and pin-compatibility aspect of designing with the ARM-based family; in the new chips you have options for USB—host, device or On-the- Go—and 10/100 Ethernet with integrated MAC and PHY, and CAN 2.0 A/B. They are pincompatible 64- and 100-pin devices with 16- to 256-kbyte memory options. Booth, who was formerly chief marketing offi cer at Luminary and is now TI’s marketing manager for ARM M3 MCUs, also stresses an average 13% price reduction across the Stellaris product line, which she attributes to the economies of scale that moving into TI has brought. A further differentiating factor that marks the new Stellaris parts is, Booth says, their packaging. Package options—to suit the needs of the small-to-medium production runs that prevail in industrial designs—include a 48-pin QFN package on a 7x7-mm footprint, which you can also order as a QFP, taking the footprint to 9x9 mm with the leads. Motor-control designers, in particular, need the more compact outline if they are working on controls that will reside within the motor housing, Booth says.

The first two Sitara parts, the AM3505 and AM3517, employ 375-MHz Cortex-A8 cores, and you will likely use them in systems that run a high-level operating system, TI says; the same systems will frequently employ sophisticated graphical user interfaces, and the AM3517 also includes a 3-D graphics accelerator. These processors are, TI says, the fi rst Cortex-A8- based solutions that it has optimised for industrial applications, with multiple device packages, industrial-temperature options, peripheral integration, graphics capabilities and high computational performance at a power dissipation of under 1W. The superscalar core provides 1000 Dhrystone MIPS; operating-temperature range is the industrial -40 to +85°C; connectivity includes integrated an CAN controller and USB 2.0 On-the-Go with built-in PHY, plus a 10/100 Ethernet MAC. There is DDR2 memory support, and the chips have 3.3V I/Os. These devices come in BGA packages on a 0.65-mm ball pitch, as well as in packages that TI says will meet the needs of many mediumproduction- volume projects. Still BGA packages, these will simplify layout and assembly with a 1-mm ball pitch; for a 400-pin device, this yields a large outline at over 20mm².

Early in 2010, TI will add chips in the AM17xx and 18xx families that will use an ARM926 core, extending the performance points at the high end of its scalable ARMbased offering. The ARM9 chips, again with a wide range of peripherals, will also offer features to suit applications with imaging requirements. The promised 1-GHz clock chips will be Cortex-A8 parts, in a later introduction.

Recognising that software is critical to development time, TI’s offering includes the newly named StellarisWare, code libraries for peripheral drivers, graphics functions, USB, and a boot loader. All are available in source, and some of the more commonly used are coded into ROM on some Stellaris parts. The same principles underpin the software that accompanies the Sitara range; for these, there is support for Linux and Windows CE. A wide assortment of development boards accompanies the ARM-based chips, at price points from $49 to $999.

Texas Instruments, www.ti.com.