OL2.JUN–Motorola–RM
Popular microcontroller family evolves for higher performance, regular
structure
Motorola (Austin, TX) has announced a new 8-bit microcontroller family
that is object-code compatible with the 68HC05 family, a Motorola low-end
mainstay, with 130 customer-specific variants of its own. Samples of the
new 68HC08 family are expected in the fourth quarter, but third-party
tools are available now for those who wish to experiment or start
designing. Production is planned for the second half of 1994. The 68HC08
family is laid out like the modular 68300 microcontroller family, with an
integral bus and a reusable CPU core, the CPU08 (see photo), that
facilitates proliferation of dedicated variants. By no means a RISC
processor, the 08 core adds 78 instructions, including stack-manipulation,
to make compiled code run more efficiently. It has a 16-bit index register
and stack pointer. Memory-to-memory moves, improved looping, faster
multiplication, and new divide instructions add to the mix. The first
part to become available will be the general-purpose 68HC08XL36. It will
have three-channel direct-memory access, a timer with programmable
captures and compares, serial communications, a three-wire synchronous
peripheral interface, a system control module, a clock generator, and
memories (RAM, ROM, and EPROM). An EPROM-based one-time-programmable
version, 68HC708XL36, is planned to sample in the fourth quarter and will
sell for $30 each per 100. Byte Craft Ltd. (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)
offers a source debugger for $795 and a C compiler for $1,495. Motorola
distributes free a PC-based software simulator developed by P&E
Microsystems, Woburn, MA. For more from Motorola, call Julie Sayce at
512-891-2035 or . For more from Byte Craft, call Walter Banks at
519-888-6911 or . –Rodney Myrvaagnes
CAPTION FOR DIE SHOT:
This very regular array is the CPU08, the core of the 68HC08 family. It
runs 68HC05 code, but has many added instructions, making new code more
efficient.
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