Nuts & Volts

■ H A R D W A R E ■ S O F T W A R E ■ G A D G E T S ■ T O O L S
innovative Spy bi-wire debug interface,
only two signals — power and ground
— are needed to connect the emulation
interface and target, enabling very
compact, high-performance MCU development
in a low-cost environment.
The emulation board communicates
with the MSP430 MCU target
devices’ emulation logic nonobtrusively,
in-system and subject to
the exact same electrical characteristics
as the final application, which
eliminates costly, time-consuming
intermediate steps. This board uses a
TI TUSB3410 for the USB interface and
a TPS77301 to provide 3V regulation
to the system. The target board makes
all 14 MSP430F2013 pins available on
an industry standard 0.1 inch throughhole
header and includes an LED for
immediate development feedback.
The eZ430 tool includes a free IAR
Kick Start Embedded Workbench IDE
containing a debugger, assembler, and C
compiler. This is the same IDE currently
used for all MSP430 MCUs, meaning
designers can leverage existing code
and expertise. To jump-start new
projects, users can tap into over 100 free
C and assembler source code examples
that are available from TI’s website.
The MSP430F2013 MCU is part of
the recently introduced MSP430F20xx
series, operating up to 16 MIPS in
a robust failsafe environment with
no external components. The
MSP430F20xx series’ fully programmable
clock system is stable over temperature
and voltage, providing wake-up
from an industry-leading 500 nanoamp
standby to full-speed operation in
less than one micro-second. Ultra-low
power combined with on-demand highperformance
lets designers tune their
systems to stay in standby longer so
their applications conserve more power
and use smaller, lower cost batteries.
Operating from 1.8 to 3.6V,
MSP430F20xx MCUs allow direct
battery operation and are available in a
14-pin footprint as small as 4x4mm. A
choice of converters includes an analog
comparator for very cost-sensitive
applications, a 200 kilosamples per
second (KSPS), 10-bit analog to digital
converter (ADC) for real-time signal
processing, or a 16-bit sigma-delta ADC
for high-precision systems. All devices
include an enhanced watchdog timer
for extreme reliability, a multi-function
16-bit timer and in-system programmable
Flash for greater design flexibility
and field upgrade capability. With 128B
of RAM, a full-featured 16-bit RISC
CPU, and complete development in C,
developers can reuse existing MSP430
instruction set architecture (ISA)
libraries for faster time-to-market.
From ultra low-power MSP430
devices and 32-bit general-purpose
TMS470 ARM7-based MCUs to high
performance TMS320C2000 digital
signal controllers, TI offers designers
a broad range of embedded control
solutions. Designers can also accelerate
their design to market by tapping
into TI’s complete software and
hardware tools, extensive third party
offerings, and technical support. For
more information on TI’s broad range
of controllers, see www.ti.com/mcu
Texas Instruments, Inc.
Web: www.ti.com/ez430
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