New $39 Piccolo™ USB tools jumpstart 32-bit real-time control development

Piccolo MCUs sampling now to enable greener, more cost-effective industrial, automotive and consumer applications

HOUSTON .- Helping designers bring 32-bit real-time control to cost sensitive applications, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced two new USB-based tools for Piccolo™ 32-bit TMS320F2802x microcontrollers (MCU). The new evaluation and development tools make it easier for designers to evaluate Piccolo MCUs and develop more energy-efficient, real-time control applications such as solar power micro-inverters, LED lighting, white goods appliances and hybrid automotive batteries (www.ti.com/controlstickpr). In addition, the first Piccolo-based devices, the F2802x series, are now available for sampling (www.ti.com/piccolopr).

Real-time control drives energy efficiency across many applications

* Solar micro-inverters: Packing 32-bit performance into a small, low-cost package brings better efficiency and control to solar-powered systems by enabling micro-inverter-based systems that have the potential to drive higher power conversion efficiencies compared to traditional, centralized inverter systems.
* Commercial and industrial lighting applications: LED technology can bring up to 50 percent higher energy efficiency compared to traditional high pressure sodium lamps. Piccolo MCU-based systems enable smart current control and easy system networking to reduce the complexity and cost of managing color mixing and temperature control required for white LED systems.
* Power line communications (PLC): Piccolo MCUs’ real-time performance and integration help bring PLC to multiple applications, including street light networks that allow cities to pinpoint power outages and centrally manage or adjust lighting based on time of day, traffic or weather conditions.

Pricing, availability, tools and support

The $39 Piccolo controlSTICK offers example projects that walk through Piccolo MCUs’ advanced functionality, from simply blinking an LED to configuring the high resolution ePWM peripherals. The $79 Piccolo Experimenter’s Kit offers the next step in development by allowing designers to prototype and develop full Piccolo MCU-based projects quickly and easily. The first F2802x Piccolo MCUs, TMX320F28027PTA and TMX320F28023DAA, are available for sampling and scale from 40 to 60 MHz variations with up to 64 KB Flash memory, 12-bit ADC, ePWM and various peripherals. Future Piccolo MCUs such as the F2803x series will offer increased performance and memory sizes as well as additional peripherals and features such as the programmable, floating point control law accelerator (CLA).