Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments


MSP430

Targets: Audio, Consumer, General Purpose, Imaging & Video, Industrial, Medical, Mobile & Wireless, Security

The MSP430 microcontroller platform integrates high-performance analog and mixed signal processing technologies to help system designers simultaneously interface to analog signals, sensors and digital components while maintaining low power. These devices employ an ultra-low-power architecture that extends battery life (0.1-micro-Amp RAM retention; less than 1 micro-Amp real-time clock; mode; less than 250-micro-Amp/MIPS active), and incorporate intelligent peripherals to offload the CPU processing load.

The MSP430 microcontroller's orthogonal architecture consists of 16 fully addressable, single-cycle 16-bit CPU registers, 27 instructions and seven consistent-addressing modes resulting in higher processing efficiency and code density. The 16-bit RISC CPU, peripherals and flexible clock system use a von-Neumann common memory address bus (MAB) and memory data bus (MDB). The devices support ultra-low power operation with Zero-power Brown Out Reset (BOR) and a 6-micro-second clock startup with 50-nA pin leakage.

MSP430 microcontrollers include 0.5 to 256-kbytes of ISP Flash, up to 16-kbytes of RAM and are available in 14 to 113-pin packages. Integrated peripherals include a 10-/12-/16-bit ADC, 12-bit DAC, a comparator, LCD driver, supply voltage supervisor (SVS), operational amplifiers, 16- and 8-bit timers, LDO/PMM, watchdog timer, UART/LIN, I²C, SPI, IrDA, USB, RF, hardware multiplier, DMA controller and temperature sensor.

The MSP430 microcontroller clock system targets battery-powered applications. Multiple oscillators support event-driven burst activity. A low frequency Auxiliary Clock (ACLK) is driven directly from a common 32-kHz watch crystal or the internal very low-power oscillator— with no additional external components. The ACLK can be used for a background real-time clock self wake-up function. An integrated high-speed Digitally Controlled Oscillator (DCO) can source the master clock (MCLK) used by the CPU and sub-main clock (SMCLK) used by the high-speed peripherals. By design, the DCO is active and stable in as little as 1 microsecond; the 1 microsecond DCO start-up allows MSP430 systems to remain in low-power modes for the longest possible interval to extend battery life. The DCO is fully user programmable.

MSP430 peripherals are designed to require minimal software service. For example, the analog-to-digital converters all have automatic input channel scanning, hardware start-of-conversion triggers and DMA data transfer mechanisms. These hardware features allow the CPU resources to focus more on differentiated application-specific features and less on basic data handling.