NEC Electronics Introduces New 16-bit MCUs with Industry-Leading Low Power Consumption

NEC Electronics Europe today introduced 22 new 16-bit All Flash™ microcontrollers (MCUs) for compact, low-power, battery-operated and sensor-enabled systems. Based on NEC Electronics’ high-performance 16-bit 78K0R CPU core, the new 78K0R/Kx3-L MCUs offer very low power consumption to extend battery life, and more on-chip integration to help reduce the size and cost of battery-driven and sensor-enabled systems such as fire and security alarms, meters, industrial sensors, anti-shake digital cameras, handheld medical diagnostics devices, and data-logging and point-of-sale terminals.

In addition to low power consumption, the new lineup offers high-performance on-chip oscillators, built-in circuits for sensor functions and extended system operating time.

By optimizing their power management circuitry, NEC Electronics has reduced standby power consumption in these new devices (when only the real-time clock functions are operational) by 60 percent, from an average of 2.4 microamperes (uA) to 1.0 uA. Likewise, power consumption at 10 MHz operation has been reduced by 10 percent from 3,9 to 3,5 milliamperes (mA), and at 20 MHz operation by 20%, from 8,2 to 6,5 mA. This lowered power consumption contributes to higher overall performance in end systems, a necessity for designers of the latest battery-driven applications. The new MCUs also offer the industry’s highest power/performance ratio, moving the bar from 1.8 to 1.5 milliwatts (mW) per million instructions per second (Dhrystone 1.1).

Three on-chip oscillator circuits are able to generate three separate operating frequencies, one at the power-saving clock speed of 1 MHz, another at the high-performance clock speed of 20 MHz and a third at the conventional clock speed of 8 MHz, allowing users to select the most optimal operating frequency for a given application. An error rate of guarantee 1 percent at operating frequencies of 8 and 20 MHz eliminates the need to add an external oscillator for asynchronous data transfers. This also contributes to lower costs and smaller sizes in end systems.

An optimized 12-channel, 10-bit A/D converter circuit improves the time it takes to convert analog input into digital output, thereby reducing signal conversion time from 6 to 3 microseconds — 50 percent faster than conventional products. Further, the addition of one internal operational amplifier channel and two internal comparator channels, in lieu of externally mounted peripherals, allows a wide range of analog data to be measured at low cost.

The 78K0R Kx3-L MCUs can further reduce operating voltage from 2.7 to 1.8 volts (V) in the low consumption current mode and extend operating time in the end system.

A detailed specification of the new devices can be found here.

As environmental awareness has grown, energy-saving systems have become particularly reliant on MCU technology. Over the past several years, NEC Electronics has delivered many ultra-low-power 8- and 32-bit MCUs that have met the demand for energy efficiency. With the introduction of the new 78K0R/Kx3-L devices, NEC Electronics is now delivering the benefits of energy efficiency in its 16-bit products.

Availabilty
Samples of the 78K0R/Kx3-L MCUs are expected to begin shipping in August 2008. Volume production is scheduled to begin at the end of 2008, with planned monthly production ramping to one million products within a year for all 22 models.

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_{NEC Electronics, NEC Electronics (Europe) and NEC Electronics America are either registered trademarks or trademarks of NEC Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other marks are property of their respective owners. All products and services mentioned in this release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The All Flash™ MCUs use SuperFlash® licensed from Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. SuperFlash® is a registered trademark in Japan and the U.S. of Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.}