TI MSP430 Category - Page 2 of 3 - CNX Software

January 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Texas Instruments MSP432 LaunchPad Development Board Sells for $4.32 (Promo)

Texas Instruments has started the year by offering a deal on their 32-bit MSP432 LaunchPad Development Kit, dropping the cost from $12.99 to $4.32 for a limited time with coupon code 432@432. MSP432 Launchpad’s key features: MCU – Texas Instruments MSP432P401R ARM Cortex M4F MCU @ 48 MHz with FPU and DSP, 256KB flash, 64KB RAM Expansion – 40 pin BoosterPack Connector, and support for 20-pin BoosterPacks Misc – 2 buttons and 2 LEDs for user interaction Debugging – Back-channel UART via USB to PC, Onboard XDS-110ET emulator featuring EnergyTrace+ Technology Power – Micro USB connector The kit includes the board, micro USB cable and a quick start guide. There’s plenty of technical documentation for the board, although for some unknown reasons, I can’t download any PDF documents from TI website tonight. The coupon is still working, but free shipping on TI eStore seems to be a thing of the […]

March 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Texas Instruments Introduces MSP432 ARM Cortex-M4F MCU Family

Texas Instruments has just launched a successor for its 16-bit MSP430 MCU family with MSP432 MCU series featuring a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F core, a DSP, up to 256 KB flash, up to 64 KB SRAM, and according to the company ” delivering a ULPBench score of 167.4 outperforming all other Cortex-M3 and -M4F MCUs on the market”. The new MCU family targets consumer & portable electronics, building & factory automation & control, smart grid & energy, healthcare & fitness, and wearables applications. Key features listed for MSP432P4xx: MCU – 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F up to 48 MHz with FPU and DSP. Delivers 3.4 Coremark/MHz Memory – Up to 64 KB RAM; Selectable RAM retention Storage – Up to 256 KB Flash; dual bank for simultaneous reading and writing Security – 256-bit AES encryption, JTAG access lock, 4 IP Protection regions EnergyTrace Technology Real-time power measurement and debugging Generate application energy profiles including […]

August 16, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

MCU Energy Efficiency Benchmark – Freescale KL02, Microchip PIC24, TI MSP430, and STMicro STM32L

Freescale has recently uploaded a video comparison the energy efficiency of several micro-controllers: Freescale Kinetis KL02, Texas Instruments MSP430, STMicro STM32L, and Microchip PIC24. Since it’s a Freescale video, we already know the winner, but the test they performed it still interesting, and it shows drastic performance differences between architectures. The used the following exact MCU for testing: Freescale MKL02Z32CAF4R – Cortex M0+ @ 48 MHz STMicro STM32L151RBT6 – Cortex M3 @ 32 MHz Microchip PIC24FJ128GA308 – 16-bit MCU @ 32 MHz Texas Instruments MSP430F5529 – 16-bit MCU @ 25 MHz Freescale did not really select tough competition such as NXP LPC800 Cortex M0+, but instead a Cortex M3 MCU, and older 16-bit MCUs. I don’t know if Microchip has a new generation of ultra low power 16-bit MCUs , but Texas Instruments, for example, launched MSP430 Wolverine MCUs at the end of last year. So this comparison may not be […]

August 15, 2013August 15, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

$20 Boogie Board is an “Etch a Sketch” LCD Tablet

If you’re old enough (or have followed the US 2012 presidential race), you must know an Etch a Sketch is a drawing board that you can erase by shaking it. The Boogie Board LCD eWriter has basically the same functionality, but instead of using aluminum powder, it’s using a Reflex LCD display and a stylus, and instead of shaking it to erase content, you’ll just press a button. Like E-Ink, reflex LCD displays do not use power when content remains unchanged. The first version was released in 2010, and appears to be relatively easy to find in the US (online retailers, Wallmart…), but not so in the rest of the world. There are 5 versions of the Boogie Board, but the last 2 that will only be available for Xmas 2013: Original 8.5 – 8.6″ display, external adhesive magnets Original 10.5 – 10.5″ display, replaceable batteries Jot 8.5 – 8.6″ […]

June 13, 2013June 13, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Texas Instruments Introduces SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000 BoosterPack

Texas Instrument launched SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000 in Q1 2012 in order to bring WiFi connectivity to any device including 8-bit or 16-bit MCU, as CC3300 internally handled all networking tasks, and exchange data with the MCU via an SPI interface. This Wi-Fi processor allows to use Wi-Fi for data transmission for the Internet of Things, and offers much better battery than other system relying on software to handle network traffic. Today, the company has just announced SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000 BoosterPack, a low cost evaluation platform that works with both MSP430 and Tiva C Series LaunchPad evaluation kits, and sells for $35. SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000 BoosterPack features and benefits as seen in the press release: SmartConfig technology: One-step Wi-Fi configuration using smartphones, tablets or PCs Easy network setup for display-less (headless) devices Simultaneous multiple device provisioning iOS, Android and Java sample applications available Royalty-free software Flexible memory size – Small memory foot print […]

March 20, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Thingsquare Mist – Open Source Firmware for The Internet of Things

Thingsquare recently released the source code for the Thingsquare Mist firmware, an ultra lightweight router software (<4 kB memory) for the Internet of Things based on open Internet standards such as IPv6, RPL (Routing Protocol for Lossy networks), and 6lowpan. Thingsquare Mist allows to connect battery-powered wireless micro-controllers to the Internet, and is currently used in applications such as smart light bulbs, connected home appliances, and connected cities. The IPv6 mesh network is composted of nodes with a low power radio that communicate with the Mist router (Green), which in turn connect to the Internet and Thingsquare Cloud backend (Thingsquare Haven) to store the data, and/or receive control commands via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. The end users can then use an App to monitor, and/or control the devices remotely. Thingsquare Mist uses IETF RPL IPv6 mesh routing protocol (pronounced “ripple”) for IPv6 nodes communications. Thingsquare Mist runs on several low-power wireless […]

December 7, 2012December 7, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

TI Releases TI-RTOS, a Free Real Time Operating System for MCUs

Texas Instruments announced TI-RTOS, a complete real-time operating system based on a preemptive multithreading kernel for its MCU platforms. TI-RTOSs includes SYS/BIOS real-time kernel and network developer kit (NDK) TCP/IP stack. TI expects this new OS to speed-up software development by eliminating the need to write complex system software such as schedulers, protocol stacks, and low-level drivers. TI-RTOS features and benefits: Complete embedded operating environmentthat provides full middleware and drivers including: Deterministic, real-time multitasking kernel (SYS/BIOS) TCP/IP stack, including network applications USB, EMAC, MMC/SD host and device stacks and class drivers FAT-compatible file system fully integrated with C RTS file I/O functions Ethernet, USB, UART, I2C and SD device drivers Low overhead core-to-core communication mechanism for dual-core devices Ability to move functions between dual core devices to optimize performance by using the same TI-RTOS kernel on both the ARM and C28x DSP cores. Documentation and examples to augment designs, including examples and […]

November 11, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory) and Texas Instruments MSP430FR57xx MCUs

I’ve recently received a complementary book entitled “Texas Instruments FRAM MCUs for DUMMIES” sent by Mouser, that provides technical and practical information about FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory) – pronounced F-RAM – and Texas Instruments MSP430FR57xx MCU series which makes use of this relatively new type of memory. FRAM is a non-volatile memory with power and write speed & endurance characteristics that almost matches SRAM capabilities, and leave traditional Flash and EEPROM memory in the dust in terms of performance, as you can see from the table and diagram below. At constant speed, FRAM consumes 250x less than Flash/EEPROM. Please note the FRAM write speed also depends on the MCU used, and a MCU @ 8MHz can write the FRAM @ 1400 kBps (Source: TI). However, you won’t see this type of memory in devices like smartphones anytime soon because the maximum size currently manufactured is 1MB, density is higher […]