NXP unveils lowest power Cortex-M3 based microcontrollers

EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS: NXP has introduced the industry’s lowest power 32-bit Cortex-M3 based microcontrollers, maintaining its commitment to innovation in energy-efficiency and further extending the world’s broadest range of ARM-based processors.

The new NXP LPC1300 series, based on the Cortex-M3 Rev2 core and designed for embedded 16 and 32-bit applications, operates at 70MHz and consumes approximately 200 µA per MHz, delivering advanced energy management alongside superior levels of integration.

Designed to provide a smooth transition path to 16- and 32-bit applications, the new LPC1311/13/42/43 microcontrollers are pin-compatible with NXP’s Cortex-M0 based LPC1100 series and deliver up to 32kB of flash memory, 8kB of SRAM memory, low-cost USB and up to 42 general purpose I/O pins.

With a built-in Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller (NVIC) and requiring a single 3.3V power supply, the new NXP LPC1300 features an integrated power management unit to minimize power consumption in Sleep, Deep-Sleep and Deep-power-down modes.

The LPC1300 also enables in-system programming and in-application programming via on-chip bootloader software and offer a range of serial interfaces including high speed USB 2.0 with on-chip PHY, UART, SSP/SPI controller and I2C-bus interface.

For ease of use, USB Mass Storage and HID class drivers are included on-chip enabling USB communication to be set up in minutes. Furthermore, these drivers are incorporated in ROM, leaving 100% of the user Flash space for the application.

“Having introduced the fastest Cortex-M3 based LPC1700 just weeks ago, we are now broadening our Cortex-M3 microcontroller portfolio to include the easy to use, low-cost and low-power LPC1300 series,” said Geoff Lees, vice president and general manager, microcontroller product line, NXP Semiconductors. “The new LPC1300 series has the tightest integration and the most advanced power management in this class of products while offering unbeatable value.”

NXP will be demonstrating the new family of LPC1300 microcontrollers at Computex, Taipei, from June 26 2009, and they will be widely available from September 2009. Devices without USB start at $0.99 in 10,000 unit volumes. Those with USB 2.0 will be priced starting at $1.49 in 10,000 unit volumes.