Texas Instruments MSP430 Value Line Sensing MCUs Sell for 25 Cents and Up

Texas Instruments MSP430 16-bit mixed signal microcontroller has been around since at least 2004, and the last time I played with the MCU was with eZ430-Chronos wireless watch development kit in 2011.

Over the years, the company has added more parts to its MSP430 MCU portfolio, and they recently added two new MSP430 Value Line Sensing MCUs that offer up to 25 functions (timers, I/Os, reset controller, EEPROM…) for as low as 25 cents, as well as a new MSP430FR2433 LaunchPad development kit .

MSP430FR2000 and MSP430FR2100 MCUs have the same features set, except for the memory (512 vs 1024 bytes):

16-Bit RISC Architecture up to 16 MHz
Memory / Storage
- MSP430FR2000 (new) – 0.5KB of Program Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) + 512 Bytes of RAM
- MSP430FR2100 (new) – 1KB of Program FRAM + 512 Bytes of RAM
- MSP430FR2111 – 3.75KB of Program FRAM + 1KB of RAM
- MSP430FR2110 – 2KB of Program FRAM + 1KB of RAM
Supply Voltage Range – 1.8 V to 3.6 V
Low-Power Modes (at 3 V)
- Active Mode: 120 µA/MHz
- Standby
  - LPM3.5 With VLO: 1 µA
  - Real-Time Clock (RTC) Counter (LPM3.5 With 32768-Hz Crystal): 1 µA
- Shutdown (LPM4.5): 34 nA Without SVS
Analog
- 8-Channel 10-Bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) with integrated temperature sensor, internal 1.5-V Reference, sample-and-hold 200 ksps
- Enhanced Comparator (eCOMP) with integrated 6-Bit DAC as Reference Voltage
Digital Peripherals
- 1x 16-Bit Timer With Three Capture/Compare Registers (Timer_B3)
- 1x 16-Bit Counter-Only RTC Counter
- 16-Bit Cyclic Redundancy Checker (CRC)
Serial Communications – Enhanced USCI A (eUSCI_A) Supports UART, IrDA, and SPI
Clock System (CS)
- On-Chip 32-kHz RC Oscillator (REFO)
- On-Chip 16-MHz Digitally Controlled Oscillator (DCO) With Frequency-Locked Loop (FLL)
- On-Chip Very-Low-Frequency 10-kHz Oscillator (VLO)
- On-Chip High-Frequency Modulation Oscillator (MODOSC)
- External 32-kHz Crystal Oscillator (LFXT)
- Programmable MCLK Prescalar of 1 to 128
- SMCLK Derived From MCLK With Programmable Prescalar of 1, 2, 4, or 8
General Input/Output and Pin Functionality
- 12x I/Os on 16-Pin Package
- 8x Interrupt Pins (4 Pins of P1 and 4 Pins of P2) Can Wake MCU From LPMs
- All I/Os are Capacitive Touch I/Os
Package Options – 16-Pin TSSOP (PW16); 24-pin VQFN (RLL)

The MCUs can be programmed with free development tools such as Code Composer Studio IDE or Cloud IDE, as well as third party solutions like IAR Embedded Workbench Kickstart. TI has also launched a new MSP430FR2433 LaunchPad development kit based on MSP430FR2433 also part of MSP430 Value Line Sensing MCUs, but with more memory (4KB SRAM) and storage (16KB FRAM).

The board includes EnergyTrace++ Technology available for ultra-low-power debugging, 20-pin LaunchPad kit standard leveraging the BoosterPack ecosystem, an on-board eZ-FET debug probe, and 2 buttons and 2 LEDs for user interaction.

MSP430FR2000 and MSP430FR2100 sells for respectively $0.29 and $0.39 in 1,000-unit quantities, and the former price drops to 25 cents in higher volumes. MSP430FR2433 LaunchPad development kit (MSP-EXP430FR2433) is sold for $4.30 with coupon code NewMSP430LP until the end of the year, after which the price will be $9.90.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.