Texas Instruments unveils MSPM33C321A mixed-signal Cortex-M33 microcontroller with 256KB SRAM, 1MB flash

Texas Instruments MSPM33C321A is a new Arm Cortex-M33 mixed-signal microcontroller clocked at 160MHz, with up to 1MB of flash with ECC and 256kB SRAM with ECC, and a range of digital and analog peripherals.

Those include 9.4MSPS dual SAR ADCs and comparators, QSPI, UART, SPI, I2C, I2S/TDM, & CAN-FD interfaces, and the company also highlights a separate VBAT power domain with RTC, integrated watchdog, and tamper I/O, as well as low power consumption with a 16µA standby current with 64kB SRAM and CPU/register retention. The MSPM33C321A also has a little brother with 512KB flash called the MSPM33C3219.

MSPM33C321A specifications:

• MCU core – 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 CPU @ 160MHz with TrustZone, FPU, and DSP extensions
• Memory – 256kB of SRAM with ECC
• Storage
  • Up to 1MB of flash memory with error correction code (ECC); dual-bank with address swap
  • EEPROM operations using 32kB high-endurance data flash
  • Quad SPI (QSPI) for external memory up to 20Mbytes/s
• Communication interfaces
  • 2x Controller Area Network (CAN) interfaces support CAN 2.0A/B and CAN-FD
  • 3x configurable serial interfaces supporting UART (LIN) or I2C (SMBus/PMBus)
  • 4 configurable serial interfaces supporting UART, I2C, or SPI
  • 2x dedicated I2C interfaces support up to FM+ (1Mbit/s), SMBus/PMBus
  • 1x dedicated SPI interface
  • 1x dedicated UART interface supporting LIN, IrDA, DALI, Smart Card, Manchester
  • 2x digital audio interfaces support full duplex I2S and TDM (16-slots)
• Digital peripherals
  • Up to 93x GPIOs
  • 2x DMA controllers with 16 total channels
  • 9x timers support up to 30 PWM channels
  • 2x 16-bit advanced timers with deadband, fault handling, and complementary pair
  • 4x 16-bit general-purpose timers
  • 1x 32-bit general-purpose timer
  • 2x 16-bit general-purpose timer supporting quadrature encoder interface
  • One window-watchdog timer
  • CRC16/32 module
• Analog peripherals
  • 2x high-speed 9.4-Msps 12-bit ADCs with up to 36 external channels
  • 2x high-speed/low-power comparators (COMP)
  • 2x externally available 8-bit DACs
  • Configurable 1.4V or 2.5V internal shared voltage reference (VREF)
  • Integrated temperature & supply monitor
• Security
  • Immutable Root of Trust (RoT) in ROM, supports secure firmware installation, boot and key provisioning
  • Global Security Controller with dynamic access controls for flash, SRAM, and peripherals
  • AES256 hardware accelerator with GCM
  • SHA256 hardware accelerator with HMAC
  • Public Key Accelerator (PKA)
  • 32-bit true random number generator (TRNG)
• VBAT island (auxiliary supply) through dedicated VBAT pin
  • Real-time clock (RTC)
  • Three tamper detection IO with timestamp
  • Independent watchdog timer (IWDT)
  • 32B backup memory
• Clock system
  • Internal 32MHz oscillator (SYSOSC)
  • Phase-locked loop (PLL)
  • Internal 32kHz oscillator (LFOSC)
  • External 4 to 48MHz crystal oscillator (HFXT)
  • External 32kHz crystal oscillator (LFXT)
  • External clock input
• Debugging – 2-pin serial wire debug (SWD)
• Supply Voltage – 1.71 V to 3.6 V
• Low-power modes and power consumption
  • RUN: 207µA/MHz (CoreMark)
  • STANDBY: 16µA with CPU execution resume and 64kB SRAM retention
  • SHUTDOWN: <100nA with IO wake-up capability
• Packages
  • 48-pin VQFN (0.5mm pitch)
  • 64-pin LQFP (0.5mm pitch)
  • 80-pin LQFP (0.5mm pitch)
  • 100-pin LQFP (0.4mm & 0.5mm pitch)
  • 100-pin nFBGA (0.8mm pitch)
• Temperature Range – –40°C up to 125°C

The Cortex-M33 microcontroller is supported by the MSPM33 Software Development Kit (SDK) and the Code Composer Studio IDE. The company also provides the LaunchPad EVM LP-MSPM33C321A LaunchPad development kit with an onboard XDS110 debug probe, optional EnergyTrace technology for ultra-low debugging, 80-pin BoosterPack headers, a Mikrobus connector, two buttons, an RGB LED, a red LED, and an OLED. External REF6033 and external OPA365 (unpopulated by default) for ADC evaluation are also supported.

Texas Instruments has yet to officially announce the microcontroller, and instead, I found it through a LinkedIn post by Rodney Farrow, Senior Application Engineer at Texas Instruments. This may explain why I didn’t find proper photos of the board, and only a blurry render.

Low-cost 100-pin package devices are reported to start at $2.81 per unit for orders of 1,000 units. The LP-MSPM33C321A LaunchPad development kit can be purchased now for $19.50 through the board’s product page, where you’ll also find a user manual and resources to get started. Additional information about the MSPM33C321x microcontrollers themselves can be found on the product page.

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