Motorola 8-Bit Reference Design Promotes Rapid Development of Lighting Control Applications

Complete Package Includes Design, Application Note, Software, Development Tools and Training for Digital Addressable Lighting Interfaces (DALI)

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a strategy to help customers bring products to market more quickly and cost effectively, Motorola's (NYSE: MOT - news) Semiconductor Products Sector has released a new reference design for Digital Addressable Lighting Interfaces (DALI). The DALI reference design, the third in a series of application-specific reference designs based on Motorola's 68HC908 8-bit Flash microcontrollers (MCUs), helps embedded systems engineers develop lighting control applications for local room control and building management systems. DALI, an industry standard developed by major lighting manufacturers for lighting interfaces, is known for its high flexibility and low cost. The DALI reference design includes hardware, software, development tools, application notes and training materials.

"With rapid developments in the lighting industry, such as advances in digital control and energy efficiency, getting a product to market quickly can mean the difference between success and failure," said Jaakko Mutkala R&D Chief Design Engineer with Lexel Development Center Building Control. "Motorola's DALI reference design gives us a boost in designing our lighting applications, allowing us to focus on developing our own value-added intellectual property for our lighting systems."

Developed by a group of lamp, ballast and fixture manufacturers, DALI is a nonproprietary digital communications protocol that allows for communication between a controller and a lighting fixture containing a fluorescent, compact fluorescent, or incandescent/halogen lamp. Common uses of DALI include adjusting lighting for day and night, varying lighting for activities or direction of sunlight throughout the day, energy savings and remote management.

"Our customers in the lighting industry are under increasing pressure to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs," said Paul Grimme, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's 8/16-Bit Microcontroller Division. "DALI provides a simple, low-cost alternative to other lighting control systems. Motorola is providing this series of reference designs to help our customers accelerate the development of their embedded systems. By providing our customers with these building blocks, we help free them to focus on their area of expertise."

DALI allows for the lighting in a room to be easily controlled to suit many purposes and supports pre-programmed lighting settings. A DALI network can be linked to a building management system through a gateway and managed from a PC terminal creating many potential benefits. For example, lights near a window can be connected to sensors that detect the amount of sunlight. When the natural light is bright, the lights could be programmed to dim thereby improving energy efficiency. Or, lights in a conference room could be linked to motion sensors. When participants entered the room, the lights could adjust to a preprogrammed meeting setting. When no one is in the room, the lights would automatically turn off after a programmed period of time, which results in reduced energy consumption.

DALI Reference Design Features

Based on Motorola's ultra small, integrated 68HC908KX8 embedded Flash MCU, the 2-chip DALI reference design is targeted for both master and node control with a full set of features. Motorola's 68HC908 family of cost-effective embedded Flash 8-bit MCUs is ideal in this application. The high performance 8MHz bus speed allows for efficient Interrupt Handling, while the instruction-rich architecture allows for high code density. This combination provides a small, low cost solution. In addition, the high performance embedded Flash allows for lighting variables to be stored in Flash, executed from Flash and even remotely updated from another part of the building.

     * Full support for the DALI communication protocol
     * Software-API for DALI communication
     * Internal on-chip Flash memory for flexible light values storage
     * Demo software for building a simple DALI network
     * Connection for any 12 volt lamp with a power consumption equal to or
       less than 10 watts or use the control wires to control any self-powered
       DALI compliant nodes
     * LCD display for status condition and board configuration
     * Monitor mode interface for on-board Flash programming and monitor mode
       debugging
     * RS232 interface
     * On-board voltage regulator

Continuing Motorola's long legacy in embedded Flash memory technology, the 68HC908 Flash-based, single-chip 8-bit MCUs, such as the 68HC908KX8 used in the DALI reference design, are engineered to provide the flexibility that an embedded systems designer needs for cost-effective software upgrades through in-application programmability and re-programmability in development, production and in the field.

Price and Availability

The DALI reference design is available now for download at no cost to registered users of Motorola's semiconductor website by visiting www.motorola.com/mcu/.

About Motorola

As the world's #1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector creates DigitalDNA(TM) system-on-chip solutions for a connected world. Our strong focus on communications and networking enables customers to develop smarter, simpler, safer and synchronized products for the person, work team, home and automobile. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $7.9 billion (USD) in 2000. http://www.motorola.com/semiconductors/

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT - news) is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2000 were $37.6 billion. http://www.motorola.com

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo and all other trademarks indicated such herein are trademarks of Motorola, Inc. (R)Registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.

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