http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Atmel_SAM3S.asp The Atmel SAM3S is really (really!) a fully-featured microcontroller. Lots of serial peripherals, and very significant power savings. This might be the lowest-power Cortex-M3 yet (I haven't seen the specs on ALL of them!). Article includes a block diagram and a waveform of the noise reduction possible with Atmel's On-Die Termination (ODT). - Bill Giovino Executive Editor http://Microcontroller.com
New Atmel SAM3S Cortex-M3 Microcontrollers - claim to be lowest-power Cortex-M3 Microcontrollers (so far?)
Started by ●December 16, 2009
Reply by ●December 16, 20092009-12-16
On Dec 17, 2:11=A0pm, "Bill Giovino" <contac...@microcontroller- nospam.com> wrote:> The Atmel SAM3S is really (really!) a fully-featured microcontroller.fully-featured ? Hmmm.. Why DO some suppliers persist in putting 16 bit counters, into 32 bit Controllers ?! Atmel fudge it a bit, with a chaining option, but NO SIGN of how that works on Quadrature mode. -ie seems you cannot chain as Up/Dn counters ?. -jg
Reply by ●December 17, 20092009-12-17
Bill Giovino <contact01@microcontroller-nospam.com> wrote:> > http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Atmel_SAM3S.asp > > The Atmel SAM3S is really (really!) a fully-featured microcontroller. Lots of se > rial > peripherals, and very significant power savings. > > This might be the lowest-power Cortex-M3 yet (I haven't seen the specs on ALL of > them!). > > Article includes a block diagram and a waveform of the noise reduction possible > with > Atmel's On-Die Termination (ODT).Aha. If they only had been available other than engineering samples on development kits they would've been really nice... For now it is still vaporware. I was looking into them just yesterday because they presumably have a feature that 99.9999% of others lack -- unique digital ID built-in. Stellaris MCUs that are really good and dirt cheap don't have such a feature. --- ****************************************************************** * KSI@home KOI8 Net < > The impossible we do immediately. * * Las Vegas NV, USA < > Miracles require 24-hour notice. * ******************************************************************
Reply by ●December 17, 20092009-12-17
On Dec 17, 2:11=A0pm, "Bill Giovino" <contac...@microcontroller- nospam.com> wrote:> > This might be the lowest-power Cortex-M3 yet (I haven't seen the specs on=ALL of them!). Lowest power one starting with 'A' and ending with 'L' perhaps. In a real contest, it is clearly NOT the lowest power M3 See http://www.energymicro.com/ -jg
Reply by ●December 17, 20092009-12-17
"-jg" wrote... On Dec 17, 2:11 pm, "Bill Giovino" <contac...@microcontroller- nospam.com> wrote:> > > > http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Atmel_SAM3S.asp > > This might be the lowest-power Cortex-M3 yet (I haven't seen the specs on ALL of > > them!). > > Lowest power one starting with 'A' and ending with 'L' > perhaps. > > In a real contest, it is clearly NOT the lowest power M3 > > See > http://www.energymicro.com/ > > -jgGood catch - do you know for certain if Energy Micro is in volume production of the Gecko? Bill Giovino
Reply by ●December 17, 20092009-12-17
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Sergey Kubushyn wrote:> I was looking into them just yesterday because they presumably have a > feature that 99.9999% of others lack -- unique digital ID built-in.Just a heads up on the ST Cortex M3s--they have a UID built in.> Stellaris MCUs that are really good and dirt cheap don't have such a > feature.- -- Brendan Gillatt | GPG Key: 0xBF6A0D94 brendan {a} brendangillatt (dot) co (dot) uk http://www.brendangillatt.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32) iD8DBQFLKm1bHEhZ5Ws5poERAiotAJ9ASgoQrK0m74UiSUGCd4KY7HICYwCePJUD C3szZmk12YZ+y13hnhFFnTg= =O6uQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Reply by ●December 17, 20092009-12-17
On Dec 18, 5:25=A0am, "Bill Giovino" >> Good catch - do you know for certain if Energy Micro is in volume product=ion of the> Gecko?Do you mean like the same volume production Atmel have with the SAM3S ? ;) { or the ATmega32U6 ? - see other thread } Some litmus tests: Energy Micro : Have Eval systems on the shelf at Digikey. Atmel : SAM3S =3D Nothing showing at all. October Energy Micro: ["The first products are being offered by Energy Micro in QFN64 and BGA112 backages and are currently sampling with lead customers. Pricing starts at $1.55 in 100k quantities for 32-pin packages. "] December Atmel: ["Availability and Pricing The SAM3S is available in Flash memory densities of 64k, 128k and 256k Bytes and ships in 48-, 64- and 100-pin QFP, 48- and 64-pin QFN packages, and in 100-pin 0.8 mm pitch BGA packages. Sampling starts with the 256 kByte Flash memory density parts in 64- and 100-pin QFP packages and the others will follow in Q1 2010. Production volumes will be available in Q2 2010, with prices ranging from $2.50 USD to $4.45 USD in quantities of 10k units."] Summary: Neither device is yet in full release/volume production. Mid 2010 ?
Reply by ●December 17, 20092009-12-17
Brendan Gillatt <brendanREMOVETHIS@brendanremovethisgillatt.co.uk> wrote:> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Sergey Kubushyn wrote: >> I was looking into them just yesterday because they presumably have a >> feature that 99.9999% of others lack -- unique digital ID built-in. > > Just a heads up on the ST Cortex M3s--they have a UID built in.Thanks for the info, that is exactly what I need. And they are available for purchase right now, not in some undetermined future. --- ****************************************************************** * KSI@home KOI8 Net < > The impossible we do immediately. * * Las Vegas NV, USA < > Miracles require 24-hour notice. * ******************************************************************
Reply by ●December 18, 20092009-12-18
Bill Giovino skrev 2009-12-17 02:11:> http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Atmel_SAM3S.asp > > The Atmel SAM3S is really (really!) a fully-featured microcontroller. Lots of serial > peripherals, and very significant power savings. > > This might be the lowest-power Cortex-M3 yet (I haven't seen the specs on ALL of them!). > > Article includes a block diagram and a waveform of the noise reduction possible with > Atmel's On-Die Termination (ODT). > > - Bill Giovino > Executive Editor > http://Microcontroller.com > > > >You can run the controller down to 1.8V +/- 10%. Nice for battery operated equipment. Pin compatible with the SAM7S ARM7TDMI chips, so it is easy to switch. As far as I know, the SAM7S chips will still be sold for the forseeable future so no need to switch if you do not want to do that just to gain that extra edge. -- Best Regards Ulf Samuelsson These are my own personal opinions, which may or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB
Reply by ●December 18, 20092009-12-18
-jg skrev 2009-12-17 09:41:> On Dec 17, 2:11 pm, "Bill Giovino"<contac...@microcontroller- > nospam.com> wrote: > >> This might be the lowest-power Cortex-M3 yet (I haven't seen the specs on ALL of them!). >> > Lowest power one starting with 'A' and ending with 'L' > perhaps. > > In a real contest, it is clearly NOT the lowest power M3 > > See > http://www.energymicro.com/ > > -jg >You have to be a little careful with the M3 and power consumption. You can claim that you are running instructions from flash, when you are executing the "Wait for event" instruction. This turns off the clock to the CPU until the event occurs, so it is really not showing the real power consumption of the device if you measure while the device is running that instruction.. Someone told me that NXP is playing or has played that game, but I do not know if Energy Micro is doing that. The device has 100% focus on power consumption. You always have a choice between performance and power consumption when you select the standard cell library. They have clearly reasoned that the M3 has more performance than whats needed in many applications, and they decide to favour power consumption over performance in every case This means that it really is competing with 8 bit devices in performance. Max clock frequency is 32 MHz and above 16 MHz you add waitstates. it looks to me that you add waitstates even for sequential fetches so your 1,25 MIPS/MHz becomes a lot less. Don't know if it drops to half, like on an ARM7TDMI, but ~20 MIPS seems to be the max performance. The SAM3S has a programmable 64 or 128 bit internal flash bus, and runs at 64 MHz, so it is probably 3 x faster. Really two different chips for two different markets. -- Best Regards Ulf Samuelsson These are my own personal opinions, which may or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB
