TI's new low-cost floating-point Piccolo™ MCUs provide optimized performance and power line communications capabilities for energy-efficient applications

HOUSTON, Jan. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bridging the gap between low-cost Piccolo and high-performance Delfino™ floating-point microcontrollers (MCUs), Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced its new low-cost TMS320F2806x Piccolo floating-point MCUs. Rooted in TI's 25+ years of digital signal processing leadership, the new Piccolo MCUs offer an enhanced math engine specifically designed to simplify programming and optimize performance in real-time control applications that may require integrated communications. Developers of energy-efficient motor control and renewable energy applications can now use a single F2806x MCU to cost-effectively execute control loops as well as power line communications (PLC) protocols and modulation schemes. Balancing performance with the integration and ease-of-use inherent to MCUs, the new F2806x MCUs also deliver a broader range of connectivity and memory options and are backed by TI's robust tools and free controlSUITE™ software.  For more information, go to www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-pf or for a video overview, go to www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-v.

Key features and benefits of F2806x Piccolo floating-point MCUs

• Cutting-edge math engine comprised of 80 MHz floating-point C28x™ core, new Viterbi Complex Math Unit (VCU) and Control Law Accelerator (CLA) options
• Floating-point core greatly eases programming, improves compatibility with meta-language tools, and improves performance by up to 40% over fixed point
• New VCU complex math unit provides 75 tailored math instructions to accelerate processing of communications algorithms, such as those for PLC, by a factor of up to 7X
• Increased communications and throughput via USB 2.0 full-speed (host and device), CAN and direct memory access (DMA)
• 15+ MCUs provide an increased memory range of 52 – 100KB RAM, 128 – 256 KB flash as well as options for 80 and 100 pin packages
• Control-oriented peripherals, including industry's highest resolution PWMs (150ps), 3 MSPS 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and 3 analog comparators with 10-bit reference
• Low-cost F2806x controlSTICK and modular controlCARD enable easy evaluation with TI's compatible experimenter and real-world hardware application development tools
• Free controlSUITE™ software includes application and math libraries with source code as well as detailed documentation so developers can easily, fully harness F2806x features
• IQmath Library for code compatibility and scaling throughout the C2000 platform, including the low-cost Piccolo series and high-performance Delfino floating-point series

Pricing and availability

The new Piccolo F2806x floating-point MCUs start at $4.95 (1K volumes) and samples are immediately available. An $11 promotional price will be available to the first 1,000 customers who order the F2806x controlSTICK through TI's eStore before February 14, 2011. Regular pricing for the F2806x controlSTICK is $39.00, and orders can immediately be placed at www.ti.com/f2806x-cs-pr-es. The F2806x Experimenter's Kit is priced at $99.00 and orders can be immediately placed at www.ti.com/f2806x-ek-pr-es. Both the F2806x Experimenter's Kit and controlSTICK include Code Composer Studio™ integrated development environment with no compiler or memory limitations. The F2806x controlCARD is priced at $59.00 and is available to order at www.ti.com/f2806x-cc-pr-es.

TI's broad portfolio of MCUs and software

From general purpose, ultra-low-power MSP430™ MCUs, to Stellaris® Cortex™-M3-based 32-bit MCUs and high performance, real-time control TMS320C2000 MCUs, TI offers the broadest range of microcontroller solutions. Designers can accelerate time to market by tapping into TI's complete software and hardware tools, extensive third-party offerings and technical support.

Find out more about TI's Piccolo F2806x floating-point MCUs by visiting the links below:

• Piccolo MCUs: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-piccolo-lp
• Piccolo F2806x floating-point MCUs: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-pf
• Video overview of F2806x MCUs: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-v
• What does it take to do real-time control? Whitepaper: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-rtc-mc
• Adding efficient communication via new VCU Whitepaper: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-vcu-mc
• controlSUITE software: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-cs-lp
• TI's microcontroller portfolio: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-mcu-lp
• TI eStore: www.ti.com/f2806x-pr-es

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) helps customers solve problems and develop new electronics that make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun. A global semiconductor company, TI innovates through design, sales and manufacturing operations in more than 30 countries.  For more information, go to www.ti.com.

Trademarks

TMS320C2000, C2000, Piccolo, Delfino, controlSUITE, C28x, MSP430 and Code Composer Studio are trademarks and Stellaris is a registered trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated. All registered trademarks and other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

SOURCE Texas Instruments