RS Components boosts broad portfolio of MCUs

OXFORD, ENGLAND: RS Components (RS) has announced the addition of Texas Instruments' Sitara range of ARM Cortex-A8 based devices to its extensive portfolio of leading-edge microcontrollers.

Bridging the gap between high-end MCUs and mid-range ARM-processor-based devices, the TI range of Sitara ARM microcontrollers combines an excellent balance of integration, cost and performance and is designed to enable the creation of a wide variety of high-end, feature-rich and low-power embedded applications. The Sitara MCUs are suitable for a wide range of applications across many markets including home automation, industrial automation, networking, enterprise/educational tablets and consumer products such as portable navigation devices.

The series offers a range of performance levels and includes the Cortex-A8 based AM35x family, which offers up to 1200 DMIPS performance at 600MHz, up to the top-of-the-range 1.0GHz Cortex-A8 based AM335x family, which offers up to 2000 DMIPS.

The devices also integrate high-speed DDR2 and DDR3 memory and a POWERVR SGX based 3D-graphics-acceleration subsystem to support display and gaming effects and for use with advanced user interfaces such as Android. The top performer in the range, the Sitara AM335x, is also used in the BeagleBone Black community-supported development platform.

The range has ample connectivity options and includes a high-performance LCD controller with optional touch interface, CAN 2.0, USB2.0 and Ethernet/IP. In addition, the family's Programmable Real-Time Unit and Industrial Communication Subsystem (PRU-ICSS) allows independent operation from the ARM processor and enables real-time protocols including EtherCAT, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, PROFIBUS, Ethernet Powerlink and SERCOS, among others, used commonly in real-time systems in automation, for example.

The range also reduces barriers to high-end embedded design with low-cost development boards, easy access to robust software including multi-featured development tools, and a large open-source support community. Support for Linux and Android operating systems is available free of charge from TI.