Date: 06/09/2011

8-bit microcontrollers for harsh industrial and automotive apps

Freescale Semiconductor has announced two new entry-level 5V 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) for industrial and automotive applications.

Freescale's S08P MCU family contains three classes of devices (PT, PA and PL) and is compliant with the IEC-60730 safety standard for household appliances. Freescale says these deliver exceptional electrical fast transient/electrostatic discharge (EFT/ESD) performance to withstand the harsh and noisy environments of appliances, uninterruptible power supplies, HVAC systems, smart lighting and building controls, smart meters and general industrial control applications.

The S08RN MCU family is AEC-Q100-compliant and qualified up to 125°C ambient temperatures. With advanced mixed-signal features tailored for automotive applications, the S08RN family is ideally suited for touch control, lighting, power conversion/motor control, LIN nodes, sensor or actuator nodes and other electronics applications within the vehicle.

"Our cost-effective new S08 families provide the improved EMC performance and safety compliance critical for today's harsh industrial and automotive environments," said Jeff Bock, director of marketing for Freescale's Industrial and Multi-Market Microcontroller business. "We're providing durable and reliable performance for our customers, while helping simplify and shorten their design cycles."

The features include devices available in multiple options, filtering on I/O pins, internal clock generators, Electromagnetic compatibility/electromagnetic interference (EMI/EMC) compliance, built-in 16-bit CRC engine validates data, and an independent hardware watchdog monitors the system.

The S08P family includes the PT class of touch-sensing-interface-enabled controllers, full-featured PA controllers and entry-level PL devices. The three classes are 100 percent core-, peripheral-, pin- and software-compatible.

The S08RN family for automotive applications also features the touch-sensing interface down to 8 kB and will be extended with full-featured S08RNA controllers.

Availability and pricing: Samples are expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2011 in the 64-QFP and 64-LQFP packages. Suggested resale pricing starting as low as $.35 (USD) for an 8-pin/2K flash (S08PL2) in 10,000 unit quantities.

For more information, visit www.freescale.com/S08P or www.freescale.com/S08RN.