NEW SINGLE-CHIP ARM
CONTROLLER
ATMEL OFFERS A BROAD RANGE OF ARM7TDMI AND ARM 9 CONTROLLERS.
Today, ARM controllers are standard equipment in many applications. After first developing
ASIC products with ARM processor cores, ATMEL soon packed ARM technology into its standard
microcontroller line as well. When the first ARM microcontroller chips hit the market in
2001, however, they did not include on-chip Flash, since the technology for integrating
the high memory speeds required by the ARM processor did not yet exist.
Many of the original ARM product lines are still available today. In fact, they are
shipping in very large numbers, often for use in the newest OEM designs. At the same time,
ATMEL has also pushed development of 32-bit controller integration. The latest generation,
the SAM series, integrates high speed Flash memory to enable high performance single-chip
processor solutions that consume even less current.
ATMEL's ARM family has continued to grow and today comprises a broad range of products
(see table). Processors based on the ARM7TDMI core deliver 30 MIPS at 33 MHz in 0.35 µm
technology and 60 MIPS at 66 MHz in 0.18 µm technology.
|
|
The ARM9 series uses an ARM920T core
that delivers 200 MIPS at 180 MHz in 0.18 µm technology (plus 16KB instruction and 16KB
data cache, MMU, and ETM) and an ARM926EJ-S core that deliver 200 MIPS at 180 MHz in 0.13
µm technology. ATMEL's entire ARM family is rated for industrial temperature ranges from
-40° to +85° C.
As a special feature of the new SAM series, the Flash memory for the program code is
integrated on chip. A 32-bit bus is used to interface with the CPU memory, for even better
performance compared to a 16-bit solution. Lock bits are standard for the Flash memory to
block undesired reading. In addition to Flash, the SAM chips also integrate a generous
SRAM capacity for the data memory. Other implemented features include a 10-bit ADC, an
on-chip RC oscillator, a brown out detector, a PWM Controller, and various interfaces. The
first of these products, the AT91SAM7S64, is sampling now. ATMEL also supports
implementation of the new device by offering a low-cost starter kit. In addition to a
small controller board, the kit includes an IAR C compiler with 32Kb code limit and a JTAG
debugger.
Please contact CODICO for more information.
 Johannes Kornfehl, EXT 49
|
