Toshiba Drives Power-Efficient Appliance Design With New Dual-Motor, ARM Technology-Based Microcontroller

First High-Performance Cortex M3 Processor with Hardware Vector Engine Gives the TMPM370 Microcontroller Precise and Efficient Motor Control

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ — Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)*, a committed leader that collaborates with technology companies to create breakthrough designs, today announced availability of the company’s newest microcontroller (MCU), the TMPM370. Toshiba’s TMPM370 32-bit MCU is designed for use in high-efficiency AC motor applications such as washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners. The device combines an 80MHz ARM® Cortex(TM)-M3 processing core with a hardware vector engine, providing enough computation capability to drive two independent motors. The TMPM370 is the first ARM Cortex-M3 processor-based MCU to include a hardware vector engine. The TMPM370 MCU is also the first of Toshiba’s 5V family of ARM Cortex-M3 processor-based MCUs for industrial and home appliance control, offering good noise immunity and simple interfacing to 5V logic. For more first-hand information about Toshiba’s new TMPM370 MCU, visit Toshiba’s booth #310 at the ARM techcon3 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Motor control is a demanding real-time application. The algorithms that determine motor movements are computationally intensive, and a motor’s real-time control and computation requirements can conflict with each other. The TMPM370 MCU cuts the CPU load in half by offloading most of the heavy calculation to the vector engine, which also handles many of the timing tasks, such as collecting samples from ADCs and directing inputs to the PWM circuits. The end result is that TMPM370 has enough compute power and real-time control capacity to handle two motors simultaneously.
TMPM370 also includes on-chip 256Kbyte FLASH, 10Kbyte SRAM, dual 12-bit analog-to-digital converters, 4 serial interface controllers, eight 16-bit timers, 76GPIOs, voltage regulator, power-on reset, low voltage detection and oscillator frequency detection, making it a complete one-chip solution for motor control.

TMPM370 complies with IEC60730 Class B requirements for appliance safety. Power-on tests and continuously-operating fault condition checks are handled by a combination of on-chip hardware blocks and a software library.

“The reduction of power consumption in appliances is a key concern for design engineers as many utility companies are incentivizing consumers to purchase more power efficient appliances,” said Andrew Burt, vice president of the Imaging and Communications Marketing Group in the ASSP Business Unit at TAEC. “Toshiba’s new TMPM370 MCU provides the right combination of processing power and hardware peripherals to help our customers design the low-power appliances that are in demand among today’s green-minded consumers.”

“Toshiba’s innovative implementation of vector space math acceleration in a 5V Cortex-M3 processor-based MCU will help motion control engineers achieve the higher levels of efficiency and functionality required in the next generation of appliances and HVAC systems,” said Eric Schorn, VP marketing, Processor Division, ARM. “Toshiba’s adoption of the ARM Cortex architecture is a clear demonstration of the growing support for the ARM Cortex-M3 processor’s low power, high computation abilities.”
For more information about Toshiba’s TMPM370 MCU, please visit http://www.toshiba.com/taec/components/docs/ProdBrief/09J02_TMPM370_ProdBrief. pdf.

Pricing and Availability
Engineering samples of the TMPM370 MCU are available now. Mass production of the device is currently scheduled for Q2 2010. The TMPM370 MCU is priced at $4.50 per unit in 10,000 unit quantities.

*About TAEC
Through proven commitment, lasting relationships and advanced, reliable electronic components, Toshiba enables its customers to create market-leading designs. Toshiba is the heartbeat within product breakthroughs from OEMs, ODMs, CMs, distributions and fabless chip companies worldwide. A committed electronic components leader, Toshiba designs and manufactures high-quality flash memory-based storage solutions, discrete devices, displays, advanced materials, medical tubes, custom SoCs/ASICs, digital multimedia and imaging products, microcontrollers and wireless components that make possible today’s leading cell phones, MP3 players, cameras, medical devices, automotive electronics and more.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, Japan’s largest semiconductor manufacturer and the world’s third largest semiconductor manufacturer (Gartner, 2008 WW Semiconductor Revenue Estimate, Dec. 2008). For additional company and product information, please visit http://www.toshiba.com/taec/.

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