DALLAS (April 6, 2009) — Developers of embedded industrial, medical and consumer designs demand flexible architectures to support multiple industry-specific peripherals and interfaces. To address the evolving needs of these market spaces, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced four new Sitara™ ARM9 microprocessors (MPUs) and corresponding evaluation modules (EVMs) packed with a plethora of integrated connectivity options.

Unlike other ARM9 offerings, TI’s AM1808, AM1806, AM1707, and AM1705 MPUs integrate notable interfaces such as a serial ATA (SATA), universal parallel port (uPP) and TI’s unique Programmable Real-time Unit (PRU). The PRU offers flexible and configurable I/O control enabling developers to extend peripheral capabilities and add custom interfaces to their designs. The hardware and software scalability of the AM1x devices are coupled with a suite of software, demos and development tools to reduce customers’ time to market. For more information, visit www.ti.com/am1x-prhome.

AM1x key features and benefits:

• 375 and 450 MHz ARM9 options
• Unique PRU enhances system flexibility and offers full user configurability when desired
  • Extend system peripheral needs with the ability to implement and tune standard, custom and “lite” versions of common and proprietary serial interfaces, such as UART and CAN
  • Achieve maximum efficiency since the PRU offloads the ARM9 to improve application processing capacity, reduce overall power consumption, eliminate latency and improve real-time responsiveness
• Unique peripheral mix includes SATA, uPP, USB 2.0 on-the-go (OTG) with integrated PHY, USB 1.1 with integrated PHY, 10/100 Ethernet MAC, MMC/SD and more for smooth implementation of data, network, device and sensor communications
• Pin-to-pin compatibility with TI’s OMAP-L1x processors protect customers’ code investment with the capability to scale up to the OMAP-L1x to integrate real-time data, video and audio processing capabilities or for OMAP-L1x developers to scale down to the AM1x to create cost-effective, entry-level products
• Scale performance and power efficiency, utilize numerous peripherals and drive down system cost across product lines while leveraging existing hardware and software investments with TI’s Sitara product family.
• With TI’s Sitara family, developers can confidently turn their design concepts into leading innovations for a myriad of end-equipments, including industrial and home automation, point-of-service, portable data terminals and educational consoles.

Tools and software

Customers can rapidly develop and deploy their designs with the new TMDXEXP1808Lexperimenter kit for $445, the TMDXEVM1808L EVM for $1150 and TMDXEM1707 EVM for $845. The software development kit includes a Linux kernel 2.6.33 board support package, PRU configuration tool as well as PRU CAN, PRU UART and touch screen demos. Windows® Embedded CE and additional operating system support will be available later in the year.

Pricing

The AM1x MPUs are sampling today with prices starting at USD $6.55 in quantities of 1,000 units.

Find out more about TI’s AM1x MPUs by visiting the links below:

• Sitara AM1x home: www.ti.com/am1x-prhome
• AM1808 product folder: www.ti.com/am1808-prprod  
• AM1806 product folder: www.ti.com/am1806-prprod
• AM1707 product folder: www.ti.com/am1707-prprod
• AM1705 product folder: www.ti.com/am1705-prprod
• AM1808 datasheet: www.ti.com/am1808-prdatasheet
• AM1806 datasheet: www.ti.com/am1806-prdatasheet
• AM1707 datasheet: www.ti.com/am1707-prdatasheet
• AM1705 datasheet: www.ti.com/am1705-prdatasheet
• AM18x evaluation module: www.ti.com/am18x-prtools
• AM18x eXperimenter kit: www.ti.com/am18x-prexp
• AM17x evaluation module: www.ti.com/am17x-prtools
• TI’s E2E community: www.ti.com/am1x-prcommunity
• Power Specifications & Reference Designs for AM17x
• Power Specifications & Reference Designs for AM18x
• Analog & Power for AM17x Wiki
• Analog & Power for AM18x Wiki 

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) helps customers solve problems and develop new electronics that make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun. A global semiconductor company, TI innovates through design, sales and manufacturing operations in more than 30 countries.  For more information, go to www.ti.com.