May 2009

Microchip Technology Inc. is introducing two 8-bit MCU families and one 16-bit family.  According to Microchip, these MCUs provide the world’s lowest sleep power, even lower than the already low sleep power figures for its existing nanoWatt XLP 8-bit and 16-bit MCU families.  The new MCUs can operate in a deep sleep mode using down to 20nA of current.  This deep sleep mode has been achieved by process improvements and by intelligently shutting down all functions that customers have indicated are not essential, while maintaining flexible wake sources that customers have indicated are essential:  a watchdog timer, a real time clock and calendar, a brown-out reset and others.  The watchdog timer operates at currents down to 400nA.  The real-time clock and calendar operates at currents down to 500nA. 

The new families of MCUs are ideal for battery-powered applications such as smoke detectors, utility meters or medical monitors where devices are queried from time to time for values with sleep time between queries.  The low power required in the deep sleep mode can extend battery life significantly.

On May 14, 2009 Texas Instruments announced it had acquired Luminary Micro, the leading supplier of ARM Cortex-M3 based microcontrollers.  The Stellaris family of Cortex-M3 MCUs will be added to TI’s product portfolio.

The entire Luminary Micro team in Austin, TX is joining TI.  The Stellaris family will become a brand name within TI.  The tools and support developed by Luminary Micro, such as StellarisWare, will be incorporated into TI’s programs.

Semico Spin

TI’s acquisition of Luminary Micro allows the company to leap frog its MCU roadmap.
The company is the largest supplier of ARM based products across several product types - MCUs, DSPs, applications processors and cell phone baseband chips.  ARM is also the fastest growing architecture in the 32-bit MCU segment.

TI has been shipping ARM 7 based MCUs (TMS470) for several years.  It did announce a Cortex R4 (TMS570) a few years ago.  However, this only began shipping in late 2008.  The TI ARM MCU roadmap has appeared stagnant for the last couple of years.  The Luminary acquisition changes this and puts TI back on the ARM MCU fast track.

In the middle of a financial crisis, automobile makers worldwide are facing an enormous gamble.  While sales and profits are at a low point, they are being forced by events to invest in hybrid electric vehicles that have an unproven demand. 

Taxpayers are angry.  They believe that their tax money is being used to rescue car makers from problems caused by their own bad management.  They want the car companies to become leaner and more efficient; with lower pay, fewer retirement and health benefits for line workers and drastically reduced compensation for top-level executives.  At the same time, politicians and the public are pressing for green solutions.  Unfortunately, developing those solutions will take money, something that is in short supply at auto companies. 

There are several emerging technologies, gasoline direct injection, dual clutch transmissions and electronic valves for example, that together have the potential of improving the efficiency of gasoline engines by 15% to 25%.  The investment needed to incorporate those technologies is much less than the investment needed to develop hybrid electric cars.  The improved gasoline engine cars would be less expensive than hybrid electric cars; and the auto companies would make a profit on them, which may not be achievable for hybrid electric vehicles for five to ten years. 

Who could have imagined Chrysler Corp. being rescued by Fiat?  When Fiats last appeared in the US automobile market, they were viewed by most US drivers as quirky little cars from Italy with maintenance problems. 

I owned a Fiat 124 Sport Coupe during the late sixties.  For the time, it was a great car.  It had double overhead camshafts, four wheel disc brakes and a five speed transmission; features that few if any American cars had.  The car had a solid rear axle; but, because the axle was well located, that had no effect on the car’s excellent handling capabilities.  The engine would willingly rev well past its 7000 RPM limit if you let it.  I bought it because I wanted a sports car but had a family and needed something bigger.  It met my needs extremely well, but there were problems. 

The exhaust manifold gasket blew out at intervals between 5,000 and 10,000 miles.  The turn signals stopped working with about the same frequency, and then the steering column wiring harness had to be replaced.  The rear disc brake calipers slid on dissimilar materials and stopped working due to corrosion from electrolytic action when the car was driven on salted roads in the winter.  I was into working on cars then, so none of those things mattered to me.