STMicroelectronics to Release 8 b Microcontroller Platform
February 29, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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STMicroelectronics (ST) unveiled details of the STM8, an 8 b microcontroller (MCU) that will be manufactured using an ST-proprietary 130 nanometer (nm) embedded nonvolatile memory technology.
ST said the STM8 platform will be the foundation for a number of product families each optimized for specific application areas, including automotive, industrial, low-voltage and battery-operated applications, as well as application-specific standard products.
The 8 b MCU market, currently worth about $5 billion, is expected to continue showing growth, ST said. In automotive applications, for example, unit growth between 2007 and 2013 is expected to be around 40%.
However, according to ST, a key feature of the 8 b MCU market is the pressure to reduce the cost of implementation, and the STM8 platform was designed to provide performance at lower total system cost.
In performance, the STM8 leverages a Harvard architecture with 16 b index registers and stack pointer, a 16 MB linear address space, advanced addressing modes and other features designed to support C-programming to provide central processing unit (CPU) performance in speed and code density.
The core reaches an average of 1.6 cycles per instruction with 20 million instructions per second (MIPS) of performance at 24 MHz using a three-stage pipeline.
The technology was chosen with the aim of reducing system costs through a high integration level, the ability to embed nonvolatile data memory and to provide analog performance in a voltage range from 1.65 volts (V) to 5.5 V.
For example, the input/output (I/O) pads were designed to withstand a high level of external disturbances. The STM8 platform offers real embedded electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) with a performance in endurance and retention comparable to that of external components, making complex Flash-based emulation strategies obsolete, ST said.
The available on-chip Flash program memory sizes will range up to 256K. The technology options allow high-speed operation as well as reduced power consumption. All these technological features will be available in automotive-grade products that operate at temperatures of up to 145 degrees Celsius.
ST will introduce the first STM8 family in the first half of 2008.
Source: STMicroelectronics (ST).