TI expands Piccolo family of real-time control MCUs
February 1, 2011 by John Day
Filed under Design, News, Product News
C2000™ devices deliver floating-point core, Viterbi Complex Math Unit (VCU), control-oriented peripherals
Bridging the gap between low-cost Piccolo and high-performance Delfino™ floating-point microcontrollers (MCUs), Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) announced its new low-cost TMS320F2806x Piccolo floating-point MCUs.
Automotive applications include DC/DC control, electric power steering, battery management and LED/HID lighting.
The new Piccolo MCUs offer an enhanced math engine specifically designed to simplify programming and optimize performance in real-time control applications that may require integrated communications. Balancing performance with the integration and ease-of-use inherent to MCUs, the new F2806x MCUs also deliver a broader range of connectivity and memory options and are backed by TI’s tools and free controlSUITE™ software. For more information, go to www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-pf or for a video overview, go to www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-v.
Key features and benefits of F2806x Piccolo floating-point MCUs
- Math engine comprised of 80 MHz floating-point C28x™ core, new Viterbi Complex Math Unit (VCU) and Control Law Accelerator (CLA) options
- Floating-point core greatly eases programming, improves compatibility with meta-language tools, and improves performance by up to 40% over fixed point
- New VCU complex math unit provides 75 tailored math instructions to accelerate processing of communications algorithms, such as those for PLC, by a factor of up to 7X
- Increased communications and throughput via USB 2.0 full-speed (host and device), CAN and direct memory access (DMA)
- 15+ MCUs provide an increased memory range of 52 – 100KB RAM, 128 – 256 KB flash as well as options for 80 and 100 pin packages
- Control-oriented peripherals, including industry’s highest resolution PWMs (150ps), 3 MSPS 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and 3 analog comparators with 10-bit reference
- Low-cost F2806x controlSTICK and modular controlCARD enable easy evaluation with TI’s compatible experimenter and real-world hardware application development tools
- Free controlSUITE™ software includes application and math libraries with source code as well as detailed documentation so developers can easily, fully harness F2806x features
- IQmath Library for code compatibility and scaling throughout the C2000 platform, including the low-cost Piccolo series and high-performance Delfino floating-point series
Pricing and availability
The new Piccolo F2806x floating-point MCUs start at $4.95 (1K volumes) and samples are immediately available. An $11 promotional price will be available to the first 1,000 customers who order the F2806x controlSTICK through TI’s eStore before February 14, 2011. Regular pricing for the F2806x controlSTICK is $39.00, and orders can immediately be placed at www.ti.com/f2806x-cs-pr-es. The F2806x Experimenter’s Kit is priced at $99.00 and orders can be immediately placed at www.ti.com/f2806x-ek-pr-es. Both the F2806x Experimenter’s Kit and controlSTICK include Code Composer Studio™ integrated development environment with no compiler or memory limitations. The F2806x controlCARD is priced at $59.00 and is available to order at www.ti.com/f2806x-cc-pr-es.
Find out more about TI’s Piccolo F2806x floating-point MCUs by visiting the links below:
- Piccolo MCUs: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-piccolo-lp
- Piccolo F2806x floating-point MCUs: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-pf
- Video overview of F2806x MCUs: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-v
- What does it take to do real-time control? Whitepaper: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-rtc-mc
- Adding efficient communication via new VCU Whitepaper: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-vcu-mc
- controlSUITE software: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-cs-lp
- TI’s microcontroller portfolio: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-mcu-lp
- TI eStore: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-es
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