STMicroelectronics unveils four new members in the SPEAr microprocessor family, targeting embedded-control applications from computer peripherals and communication to industrial automation. Based on the latest ARM core technology and manufactured in low-power 90nm and 65nm HCMOS process technologies, ST’s SPEAr combines one or two advanced ARM9 processor cores (ARM926EJ-S up to 400MHz in typical conditions, or 333MHz in worst-case conditions of temperature and voltage) with memory interfaces, and a large set of IP blocks delivering connectivity, communication, and audio/video functions for different applications.
The SPEAr300 contains camera interface, LCD and keyboard controller, crypto accelerator, TDM bus, USB 2.0 and fast Ethernet. The SPEAr310 is tailored for telecom network applications. Integrated IP blocks include 5 fast Ethernet ports, TDM bus, 2 HDLC ports, crypto accelerator and USB 2.0. The SPEAr320 is suitable for factory automation and consumer applications and includes 2 CAN interfaces, 4 Serial ports, standard parallel port, LCD controller, crypto accelerator and USB 2.0. The dual-core SPEAr600, with performance of 733 DMIPS targets highly compute-intensive embedded applications. In addition to the two cores, it contains Giga Ethernet,USB 2.0, external local bus access for glueless FPGA connection and LCD controller.
ST provides SPEAr development kits that contain a complete set of elements to develop and test the customer system with minimum time and resource requirements.
Wolfgang Patelay, Editor Print & Online 