TI's MSP430 MCU portfolio expands to offer industry's first programmable metrology devices for low-cost analog front end solutions

DALLAS, USA: Focusing on metering and Smart Grid applications, Texas Instruments Inc (TI) has announced the MSP430AFE2xx series of metrology analog front end (AFE) ultra-low-power 16-bit microcontrollers.

Part of TI's leading embedded processing portfolio, the low-cost MSP430AFE series offers the industry's first programmable single-phase metrology devices supported with multiple communication interfaces. The microcontrollers enable system partitioning in metering applications, such as electricity meters, home automation, sub-metering and energy saving systems, which allows flexible, stand-alone, high-quality measurement.

The MSP430AFE series is based on a 16-bit RISC architecture with a system frequency of 12MHz, offering 3X the system speed over competing parts to drive increased functionality. The microcontroller achieves less than 0.1 percent error in energy accuracy over a wide dynamic range of 2400:1, enabled by three independent 24-bit sigma-delta converters supporting anti-tamper.

The MSP430AFE2xx series is also supported by multiple tools, demos and EVMs to provide several options for developers to begin evaluation and move quickly to production. Allowing users to manage energy usage and begin saving money, the RF-capable MSP430 Energy Watchdog demo displays the electricity consumption of any plug-in appliance on an LCD display. The programmable MSP430AFE EVM can be used to test the new MSP430AFE2xx as a calibrated electricity meter. Additionally, the MSP-TS430PW24 target board and MSP-FET430U24 flash emulation tool can be used to program and debug the MSP430AFE devices.

Key features and benefits of the MSP430AFE2xx Series
* Single-phase metrology analog front end supporting class 0.1 percent accuracy over a 2400:1 dynamic range.
* Three 24-bit sigma-delta analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with simultaneous sampling for single-phase measurement and anti-tampering, and a small 24-pin TSSOP package for optimal space saving.
* Programmable MSP430AFE devices offer flexibility in system design and performance.
* Comprehensive TI libraries for measuring energy, power, voltage, current and several other key metering criteria provide quick and robust single-phase metrology implementation.
* Up to 16KB Flash and 512B RAM provides design flexibility with programmable memory via SPI and UART interfaces.
* Integrated peripherals, including 16-bit timer, watchdog and hardware multiplier allow for customer controlled tasks and math intensive computations in ultra-low power modes.
* Fast ramp to production supported by multiple development tools, EVMs and demos and free, downloadable software debuggers and compilers, including Code Composer Studio IDE and IAR Embedded Workbench.

The MSP430AFE2xx microcontrollers are priced from $0.80 for 1K units and are immediately available. The MSP-TS430PW24 stand alone target board is priced at $75. The MSP-FET430U24 flash emulation tool including software and target board is priced at $149. The MSP430 Energy Watchdog demo and MSP430AFE EVM are available in limited quantities.