Sharp Microelectronics Introduces Family of ARM-based 16/32-Bit Microcontrollers

Four New Highly Integrated Microcontrollers Drive Color or Grayscale LCD Displays and support CAN 2.0B Connectivity

SAN FRANCISCO & CAMAS, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2002-- Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas (SMA) today adds to its BlueStreak family of microcontrollers (MCUs) a highly integrated line of16/32-bit MCUs.

These new 16/32-bit MCUs with LCD controllers are ideal for applications in industrial control, white goods, smart appliances, marine applications, organizers and low end PDAs. With this line, Sharp offers design engineers four unique microcontrollers with the performance of a 32-bit ARM7TDMI core, yet requiring only 16-bit external addressing. The 16-bit external addressing makes these microcontrollers ideal for use in 16-bit applications that require higher performance at the price of a standard 16-bit microcontroller.

"Our 16/32-bit microcontrollers offer increased performance and functionality over standard 16-bit MCUs without requiring the customer to re-design the board to support 32-bit addressing and memory devices," said Terry Thomas, SMA's director of marketing for microcontroller and System-on-Chip. "When the engineer needs even greater performance and is ready to go to a full 32-bit design, these ARM-based microcontrollers provide a clear software migration path with state-of-the art development tools."

The family includes four specialized microcontrollers, allowing design engineers to choose the best solution for their specific challenges. Each microcontroller consumes very little power and includes a wide range of functionality to reduce total chip count and accelerate the introduction of end products to market.

Two of the microcontrollers include CAN 2.0b. The LH75401 includes CAN with a Color LCD Controller and the LH75400 includes CAN with a grayscale LCD Controller. CAN is a robust protocol ideal for implementing command, control, and communications in electrically noisy environments, such as industrial control applications. For applications not utilizing CAN, SMA offers the LH75411 with a Color LCD Controller and the LH75410 with a Grayscale LCD Controller.

The Color LCD Controllers on the LH75401 and LH75411 support a wide range of LCD displays (STN, CSTN, TFT) including Sharp's leading edge Highly Reflective TFT (HR-TFT) with up to 4096 colors.

Other key features included within the family are a 10-bit Analog to Digital Converter with integrated touch screen controller, 32KB of on-chip SRAM, a Vectored Interrupt Controller to speed the serving of interrupts, three UARTs, SSP, three 16-bit Counter/Timers with capture & compare logic, Watchdog Timer and Low Voltage Detector. All parts operate up to 50 MHz at 3.3 V over the industrial temperature range of -40 C to +85 C.

Sharp Microelectronics has announced several microcontrollers and System-on-Chips (SoCs) for the mobile multimedia and industrial market since its designation as Sharp's Global Design Center for MCU and SoC products early in 2001. Sharp chose the ARM7TDMI core for its line of 16/32 bit MCUs to give engineers access to a wide-range of development tools and technical support. Customers will also be able to easily migrate software (utilizing the same development tools) from Sharp's 16/32-bit MCUs to Sharp's more advanced ARM720T or ARM922T based 32-bit SoCs, as their applications' increasing performance requirements dictate.

"Sharp Microelectronics is committed to taking a meaningful share of the MCU/SoC market," Thomas said. "With this new microcontroller family, we round out our product line with system-level solutions designed specifically to meet the needs of design engineers in the industrial control, white goods and smart appliances markets."

Inclusive Development and Debugging Support

Customers designing with the LH75400, LH75401, LH75410, and LH75411 will be able to draw from an extensive array of software development tools available for the ARM7TDMI(TM) architecture. SMA will offer a complete development tool kit (Hardware, Software, Documentation and Application notes) for the 16/32 bit BlueStreak line, enabling its customers to expedite their applications development. Designers will be able to plug in their custom hardware, experiment with different kinds of memory and evaluate the chip's performance quickly without having to make their own boards.

The LH75400, LH75401, LH75410 and LH75411 are scheduled for production in September 2002 with production quality samples available in August 2002.

About Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas

Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas (SMA), Camas, Wash., is a U.S. based company and a division of Sharp Electronics Corporation which is a subsidiary of Sharp Corporation, Osaka, Japan. Sharp is a worldwide developer of core digital technologies that are playing an integral role in shaping the next generation of electronic products for consumer and business needs. SMA offers breakthrough memory, LCD, opto, CCD, RF/IR, microcontroller and system-on-chip components, along with packaging and integration skills that help design engineers throughout North and South America bring their ambitious ideas to market. SMA is dedicated to improving people's lives through the use of advanced technology and a commitment to innovation, quality, value and design. More information regarding SMA's products can be found at www.sharpsma.com or by calling 1-800-642-0261.

Note: All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective companies. ARM7TDMI(TM) is a trademark of Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) Ltd.

Contact:
     Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas
     Terry Thomas, 360/834-8002
     thomas@sharpsec.com
        or
     (Media)
     Lesley Wallace, 503/222-0626 Ext. 503
                     310/753-9829 (mobile)
     lwallace@young-roehr.com