Infineon Expands Microcontroller Product Line; Introduces 16-bit MCU Family Optimized for Price/Performance in Industrial Control Applications
SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—March 8, 2005—
At the Embedded Systems Conference here today, Infineon
Technologies (NYSE:IFX) (FWB:IFX) introduced a new family of
application-specific 16-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) in its highly
successful XC16x series. With a feature set and peripheral functions
optimized for such industrial control applications as robotics,
networked systems and electrical drive systems, the new family of MCUs
achieves performance levels that match 32-bit MCUs now used in many of
these applications, and can provide cost savings up to 30 percent
compared to available alternatives.
Introducing these devices, Infineon is strengthening its position
in the global market for general-purpose MCUs, which is forecast to
grow by approximately two-thirds, to more than $22 billion annually,
in the next four years (source: Gartner, Nov. 2004).
"The new 16-bit MCU family is our response to customer requests
for solutions that are optimized for industrial control applications,"
said Chris Hegarty, vice president of the microcontroller group at
Infineon Technologies. "Engineers that until now have had to use more
expensive, general-purpose devices now can turn to an elegant,
more-powerful implementation of an industry-standard architecture.
This fully meets our goal of providing first-class products featuring
excellent real-time performance, powerful peripheral sets and a cost
point that is very attractive for product developers."
With prices approaching $5.00 in production volumes, the new
XC164S/D/N MCUs offer system designers a choice of features for
industrial control applications, including on-chip A/D converters or
CAN (Controller Area Network) interfaces and either 64K-byte or
128K-byte Flash memory. Smart peripheral functions, such as
capture/compare, CAN controller and MAC (multiply/accumulate) units,
offload tasks from the core processor and free-up compute cycles.
Additionally, the MCU bus structure allows concurrent operation of
several chip subsystems, contributing to a 2x improvement in
performance compared to current 16-bit MCUs. Overall, this flexibility
and performance contribute to lower system prices for a wide range of
applications, such as card readers, security systems, white goods,
home automation, office equipment such as printers and copiers, and
scales and conveyer belts in the industrial environment.
Technical Information on the XC164S/D/N 16-Bit Microcontrollers
The XC164S/D/N family comprises twelve single-chip CMOS
microcontrollers. With clock speeds of 20 MHz or 40 MHz, XC164 devices
achieve up to 40 MIPS (million instructions per second) performance
and overall strong performance on application-specific benchmarks. In
addition to its motor-control-specific features, the XC164S has a
10-bit A/D (analog-to-digital) converter with 14 multiplexed input
channels to support fast, parallel data acquisition. The XC164D
features an integrated TwinCAN module that handles the completely
autonomous transmission and reception of CAN frames in accordance with
the CAN specification V2.0 part B (active). The entire family of MCUs
is pin-compatible, providing additional flexibility to scale memory
size and performance across a number of end products.
The architecture of the XC164S/D/N includes a 5-stage execution
pipeline with 2-stage instruction-fetch, a 16-bit ALU (arithmetic and
logic unit), a 32-bit/40-bit MAC and a register file providing three
register banks. CAPCOM (capture/compare) units support generation and
control of timing sequences on up to 32 channels, and are typically
used to handle such high-speed I/O tasks as pulse and waveform
generation, pulse width modulation, and software timing.
Like all XC16x MCUs, the new family incorporates a powerful OCDS
(On-Chip Debug System) capability to help speed system design and
test, and a comprehensive development tool chain. Additional standard
features include a powerful interrupt control unit, and an on-chip PLL
(phase-locked loop) as part of the clock-generation circuitry.
Price and Availability
Samples of the XC164S/D/N microcontrollers are available now,
packaged in a 100-pin MQFP package. The XC164N with 64K Flash memory
is priced at $8.50 in sample quantities.
Growing MCU Portfolio
At the Embedded Systems Conference this week, Infineon also
introduced a new addition to its 8-bit Flash microcontroller family.
The XC866-2FR combines a high-performance 8051-compatible core with
on-chip Flash memory and powerful peripherals. With fast instruction
cycle times (75 ns to 150ns) and a Flash memory capacity of up to 8K
bytes, this new device can reduce system costs by 50 percent compared
to previously available 8-bit solutions.
Samples of the XC866-2FR are also available now in a green
(lead-free) P-TSSOP-38 package for industrial and automotive
temperature ranges. In quantities of 10,000, the XC866-2FR is priced
at less than $1.30.
Today's announcements follow new product introductions made two
weeks ago (see Feb. 22 news release at www.infineon.com/news),
including two new 32-bit products and a new family of 8-bit Flash
MCUs. Further information on Infineon's portfolio of microcontrollers
is available at www.infineon.com/microcontroller.
About Infineon
Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor
and system solutions for automotive, industrial and multi-market
sectors, for applications in communication, as well as memory
products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San
Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from
Tokyo. In fiscal year 2004 (ending September), the company achieved
sales of Euro 7.19 billion with about 35,600 employees worldwide.
Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol:IFX). Further
information is available at www.infineon.com.
This news release is available online at
http://www.infineon.com/news/.
Contact:
Infineon Technologies
Media Relations:
Monika Sonntag, +49 89 234 24497 (Worldwide)
monika.sonntag@infineon.com
Christoph Liedtke, 408-501-6790 (U.S.A)
christohph.liedtke@infineon.com
Kaye Lim, +65 6840 0689 (Asia)
kaye.lim@infineon.com
Hirotaka Shiroguchi, +81 3 5449 6795 (Japan)
hirotaka.shiroguchi@infineon.com
Investor Relations:
+49 89 234 26655 (EU/APAC)
408-501-6800 (USA/CAN)
investor.relations@infineon.com
