Eight-Bit MCUs Address Green Issues January 08, 2009
With an eye on power savings and environmental concerns, the established QB8 family of eight-bit MCUs steps up to the plate with efficiency-enhancing features such as two ultra-low-power stop modes, low-power run and wait modes, a 6-?s wake-up time, and low-power external oscillator and clock gating registers, which can disable clocks to unused peripherals. The devices power down to 1.8V while still operating at 20 MHz. They provide up to 8 KB of flash memory, an eight-channel a/d converter with 12-bit resolution, an eight-bit modulo timer, a 16-bit timer/pulse width modulator, real-time counter, an analog comparator, and an eight-channel keyboard interrupt module. Available in 16-pin TSSOP and a 28-pin SOIC package options, pricing for the QB8 devices starts at $0.85 each/10,000 and the DEMOS08QB8 demonstration board is available for $75. FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR INC., Austin, TX. (800) 521-6274.
