Exar Adds Next Generation Quad UART Device Family to Industry’s Most Extensive UART Product Portfolio

Exar Adds Next Generation Quad UART Device Family to Industry’s Most Extensive UART Product Portfolio

Optimize Performance for Low Voltage Applications with Industry’s Fastest Data Transfer UART (up to 16Mbps) and the Lowest Operating Voltage (1.62V)

Fremont, California, June 10, 2008 – Exar Corporation (Nasdaq: EXAR) adds next generation high performance (up to 16Mbps) and low voltage (1.62V) quad-channel UART family — the XR16M554/564/654 series — to the industry’s broadest range of market-proven UART solutions. This new product family targets a wide variety of battery operated portable consumer products as well as industrial applications including Point-of-Sale (POS), servers, industrial automation, public parking systems, and ticketing machines among others.

“At 1.62V, and in three FIFO levels (16-byte, 32-byte and 64-byte), designers of advanced low voltage and low power boards can immediately use our new series, and differentiate their OEM products,” said Eric Nguyen, strategic marketing director, Interface Product Line. “Exar is continuing to expand its UART product portfolio; this new family of quad-channel UARTs offers a unique lower voltage and high performance option while maintaining full software and pin compatibility with our previous 3.3V/5V quad-channel UART family of products. Our data rate is up to 8x faster than our nearest competition providing our customers clear advantages for the growing market demand for faster data delivery at lower voltages.”

Series Details

Composed of six different devices, the XR16MXX4 series includes the XR16M554/554D, XR16M564/564D, and XR16M654/654D. All the devices share a common set of features including four independent UART channels, selectable TX and RX trigger levels and data rates up to 16Mbps. In addition, the XR16M564/564D and XR16M654/654D has automatic sleep mode, automatic hardware flow control, automatic software flow control, a wireless infrared encoder/decoder and a fractional baud rate generator. The series supports both the Intel and Motorola bus interfaces.

Interface Products

Exar has one of the broadest portfolios of high-performance interface solutions including UARTs, serial transceivers — RS-232, RS-485 and multi-protocol, as well as, integrated UART/transceiver combinations and recently introduced wireless chipset. For chip-to-chip or system-to-system connections, Exar’s single and multi-channel interface ICs provides immediate competitive advantages to designers: low voltage/power, reduction in board space requirements, increased bandwidth capacity, and enhanced product features. Interface devices are found practically everywhere including point-of-sale (POS) terminals, digital televisions, industrial automation equipment, handheld devices, and networking environments.

Tools and Support

All devices in the series are supported by standard serial port software drivers for popular operating systems including Windows CE 4.2 and 5.0, Windows 2000, XP and Linux. With the availability of software drivers and Exar’s application support hot line (uarttechsupport@exar.com), UART customers can greatly accelerate their product development cycle.

Packages, Prices, Availability and Additional Information

Product Number Package Type Package Type Package Type Package Type

XR16M554 68-pin PLCC 64-pin LQFP 48-pin QFN 80-pin LQFP

XR16M564 68-pin PLCC 64-pin LQFP 48-pin QFN 80-pin LQFP

XR16M654 68-pin PLCC 64-pin LQFP 48-pin QFN 80-pin LQFP/100-pin QFP

XR16M554D 64-pin LQFP

XR16M564D 64-pin LQFP

XR16M654D 64-pin LQFP

All six devices are available now, and operate over the industrial temperature range. In 1,000 piece quantities, the XR16M554/554D are priced in the mid-$6 to $7 range. Additional information on the XR16M554 can be found at http://www.exar.com/Common/Content/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=XR16M554, and additional information on XR16M554D at http://www.exar.com/Common/Content/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=XR16M554D. In 1,000 piece quantities, the XR16M564/564D are priced in the mid-$7 range. Additional information of the XR16M564 can be found at http://www.exar.com/Common/Content/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=XR16M564, and on the XR16M564D at http://www.exar.com/Common/Content/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=XR16M564D. In 1,000 piece quantities, XR16M654/654D are priced in the mid-$9 range. Additional information on the XR16M654 can be found at http://www.exar.com/Common/Content/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=XR16M654 and on the XR16M654D at http://www.exar.com/Common/Content/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=XR16M654D. Additional information on all UART products can be found at http://www.exar.com/Common/Content/Product.aspx?Parent=1&ID=118.