Microcontroller Solutions TechZone Magazine, April 2011 - Digikey

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Table of Contents Digi-Key Features Editorial Comment ................................................... 5 Microcontroller TechZone SM Q & A ............................ 6 Trivia Contest ......................................................... 39 Innovations in Connectivity: a look inside Digi-Key’s state-of-the-art Weather Center ............................. 47 The Ultra-Low-Power USB Revolution ......................... 7 by Bhargavi Nisarga, Keith Quiring, and Les Taylor, Texas Instruments USB is a fast, convenient connectivity interface, but until recently it hasn’t been associated with low-power. New MCUs have made it an attractive choice for ultra-low-power embedded applications. USB-Based Temperature Monitor .............................. 12 contributed by Analog Devices If you need to be able to detect small variations in temperature, an RTD or thermocouple won’t do it. Using a thermocouple, an analog MCU, an LDO and a few discretes, you can construct a highly accurate temperature sensing application. Introducing a Second MCU to Embedded Designs ................................................. 15 by Nicholas Cravotta Adding a second MCU to your embedded design addresses a number of design issues, but not without adding some complex new ones. This article focuses on inter-processor communications and how to both avoid and/or solve the issues that arise. Eliminating the Parallel/Serial Tradeoff in Embedded Systems with SPIFI-Equipped Cortex-M3 ......................................... 19 by Rob Cosaro and Gene Carter, NXP Semiconductors The SPIFI peripheral creates a way for designers to use a small, inexpensive serial fl ash where they might previously have needed to use a larger, more expensive parallel fl ash to meet the system’s performance requirements. ColdFire Ethernet for Diverse Applications ................ 26 by Eric Gregori, Freescale Semiconductor Adding Ethernet to embedded products provides a level of connectivity never before available in the embedded space. This article provides a detailed tutorial, an example application and XML code to quickly get you comfortable with embedded Ethernet. Your MCU is Just Starting to be Connected ............... 36 by Tom Starnes, Industry Analyst, Objective Analysis Embedded applications, like individual PCs, become more useful when they can communicate with other devices. A wide range of protocols has been developed to enable such communication, but that work is far from over. Deeply Embedded Devices: The “Internet of Things” ............................................. 40 by Mark Wright and Rodger Richey, Microchip Technology Inc. Wi-Fi has long worked well to connect PCs and embedded devices. However, it’s not known for being low-power and is hardly an obvious choice for deeply embedded devices. That’s about to change. Peripheral Reflex System Avoids MCU Overload ................................................. 44 contributed by Energy Micro Energy Micro’s Peripheral Refl ex System minimizes MCU loading by enabling peripheral modules to communicate with each other without processor intervention. This article details how it works and why. CAN Primer: Creating Your Own Network .................. 48 by Bob Boys, ARM CAN is a sophisticated network well suited to any number of automotive, industrial and consumer applications. This article takes an in-depth look at the protocol, its implementations and implications for embedded designs. Power Debugging ARM Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4 Applications ...................................... 58 by Lotta Frimanson and Anders Lundgren, IAR Systems Power debugging is based on the ability to sample the power consumption of a system and correlate each sample with the source code. ARM Cortex-M3 and –M4 cores provide the architectural hooks and IAR provides the software to make this possible. The Heartbeat Behind Portable Medical Devices: Ultra-Low-Power Mixed-Signal Microcontrollers .................................. 61 by Shahram Tadayon, Silicon Laboratories In the medical device market, products must combine accurate analog measurements with high reliability and ultra-low-power consumption. Fortunately, there are some integrated mixed-signal MCUs that can deliver on all three requirements. USB 3.0—Are We There Yet ...................................... 64 by John Donovan, Low-Power Design SuperSpeed USB promises a 10x speed improvement over USB 2.0 while maintaining compatibility with legacy devices. If your next application involves streaming video, take a look at what it has to offer. 4
Editorial Comment The Energy Management, Lighting, Medical, and Hybrid/Electric Auto markets are quickly gaining scale and are directly driving an explosion of microcontroller usage. As microcontroller designs expand into new areas, so do the connectivity requirements, which is the theme of this issue of TechZone Magazine. In this issue, we explore all facets of Microcontroller connectivity protocols and how to overcome typical technical roadblocks. You will fi nd a strong selection of articles to support your connectivity protocol design decisions including: • “uIP TCP/IP Protocol Stack Demonstration” – a step by step guide using Ethernet connectivity with the titled protocol stack contributed by Renesas (page 22) • “Introducing a Second MCU to Embedded Designs” – an article on overcoming the common pitfalls of adding a second MCU to your design written by Nicholas Cravotta (page 15) • “The Ultra-Low-Power USB Revolution” – an article on integrated USB connectivity written by a trio of authors from Texas Instruments (page 7) If your design is integrated into a Lighting, Wireless or Sensor solution, see our recent TechZone magazines focusing on those areas at www.digikey.ca/magazine. When the design is complete and it’s time to build your product, remember that Digi-Key: • Stocks over 565,000 components available for off-the-shelf delivery anywhere in the world • Ships 99% of orders received by 8pm central time the same day • Offers world-class supply chain support and customer service While it’s unclear how the political uncertainty in the Middle East will affect the global economy; it is very clear that microcontrollers will continue to pervasively expand into products that touch our everyday lives. We believe that the information and insights in this issue of TechZone Magazine will support your next generation product ideas and solutions. Sincerely, Mark Zack Vice President, Semiconductor Product Digi-Key Corporation Mark Zack Vice President, Semiconductor About Digi-Key Corporation As one of the world’s fastest growing distributors of electronic components, Digi-Key Corporation has earned its reputation as an industry leader through its total commitment to service and performance. As a full-service provider of both prototype/design and production quantities of electronic components, Digi-Key has been ranked #1 for Overall Performance for 19 consecutive years from among the nation’s more than 200 distributors (EE Times Distribution Study/ October 2010). Offering more than 1.9 million products from more than 470 quality name-brand manufacturers, Digi-Key’s commitment to inventory is unparalleled. Access to the company’s broad product offering is available 24/7 at Digi-Key’s top-rated website. www.digikey.ca Digi-Key’s TechZone Magazine is a monthly series of technology-specifi c publications featuring information and resources for Lighting, Microcontrollers, Wireless, and Sensors, with more technologies to come. TechZone Magazine provides the engineering community, from students to professional design engineers, with information about supplier innovations, quality in-depth solutions, and a selection of application-specifi c considerations focused on advancing technology. Contact Information For questions, comments, or to submit an article: tzcontent@digikey.com For information about advertising oppotunities: techzoneadvertising@digikey.com To be added to the mailing list: www.digikey.ca/request Copyrights: The masthead, logo, design, articles, content and format of TechZone are Copyright 2011, Digi-Key Corporation. All rights are reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in part or in whole without express permission, in writing, from Digi-Key. Trademarks: DIGI-KEY, the Digi-Key logo, TECHZONE, and the TechZone logo are trademarks of Digi-Key Corporation. All other trademarks, service marks or product names are the property of their respective holders. All product names, descriptions, specifi cations, prices and other information are subject to change without notice. While the information contained in this magazine is believed to be accurate, Digi-Key takes no responsibility for incorrect, false or misleading information, errors or omissions. Your use of the information in this magazine is at your own risk. Some portions of the magazine may offer information regarding a particular design or application of a product from a variety of sources; such information is intended only as a starting point for further investigation by you as to its suitability and availability for your particular circumstances and should not be relied upon in the absence of your own independent investigation and review. Everything in this magazine is provided to you “AS IS.” Digi-Key expressly disclaim any express or implied warranty, including any warranty of fi tness for a particular purpose or noninfringement. Digi-Key cannot guarantee and does not promise any specifi c results from use of any information contained in this magazine. Any comments may be addressed to techzone@digikey.com. www.digikey.ca/microcontroller 5
Page 1 and 2: MICROCONTROLLER LIGHTING SOLUTIONS
Page 3: MICROCONTROLLER SOLUTIONS TZ M 112.
Page 7 and 8: The Ultra-Low-Power USB Revolution
Page 9 and 10: Figure 2: MSP430 USB microcontrolle
Page 11 and 12: MSP430x5xx Overivew Texas Instrumen
Page 13 and 14: The thermistor used in the circuit
Page 15 and 16: Introducing a Second MCU to Embedde
Page 17 and 18: Introduce complexity in stages: Do
Page 19 and 20: Eliminating the Parallel/Serial Tra
Page 21 and 22: Physical interface Figure 3 shows t
Page 23 and 24: Configure the IP address of the rou
Page 25 and 26: Usage considerations with uIP TCP/I
Page 27 and 28: The transport layer adds the most c
Page 29 and 30: DHCP client The Dynamic Host Config
Page 31 and 32: Voice synthesizer The RC Systems V-
Page 33 and 34: Drawback of XML documents The probl
Page 35 and 36: XML Streams For XML streams, the EM
Page 37 and 38: Computer connectivity The tremendou
Page 39 and 40: Are you a Microcontroller Solution
Page 41 and 42: Examples of deeply embedded, Intern
Page 43 and 44: less than what most people demand f
Page 45 and 46: Table 1: Reflex producers. Module R
Page 47 and 48: The function PRS_ScanChannel(TIMER_
Page 49 and 50: Figure 2: Schematic diagram from th
Page 51 and 52: 6. If not, it attempts to retransmi
Page 53 and 54: • How fast do I have to read the
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1) Can.h The CAN structure CAN_Msg:
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Two IRQ events are shown. Note an I
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Figure 3: Timeline window. Another
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The Heartbeat Behind Portable Medic
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While MCU suppliers continue to inn
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USB 3.0 is clearly overkill for HID
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Digi-Key, at your service. Programm
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Microcontroller Solutions TechZone Magazine, April 2011 - Digikey

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