Toshiba has included eight new products with 512KB/1MB flash storage capacity and four packages in its M4K Group of Arm Cortex-M4-powered microcontrollers. The M4K Group is part of Toshiba’s TXZ+ Family Advanced Class, consisting of five groups of low-power, high-performance 32-bit microcontrollers.
The new microcontrollers expand code flash memory to 512KB/1MB from the 256KB maximum supported by current products, and RAM capacity to 64KB from 24KB. They retain the Arm Cortex-M4 core, integrated code flash, and 32KB data flash memory (with 100K program/erase cycles).
With different motor control options such as advanced programmable motor circuits, advanced 32-bit encoders, advanced vector engine plus, and three units of high-speed, high-resolution 12-bit analog/digital converters, these class of microcontrollers are quite capable of 3-motor control, even in small scale applications (64-pin).
The new products with 1MB code flash separate the memory into two distinct 512KB areas, enabling memory swap and seamless over-the-air firmware updates, similar to Toshiba’s earlier M3H Group (2).
Toshiba “M4K Group” microcontrollers key specifications:
- CPU – ARM Cortex-M4 core @ 160 MHz, with floating point unit (FPU) and memory protection unit (MPU)
- Internal oscillator – 10MHz (+/-1%)
- Memory
- Flash (code): 1024KB or 512KB
- Flash (data): 32KB
- RAM: 64KB with parity
- I/Os – 87x GPIOs with 20x external interrupts (32 pin) or 51x GPIOs with 15x external interrupts (20 pin)
- DMA Controller (DMAC) – 32 channels or 30 channels
- Communication interfaces
- UART: 4 channels or 3 channels
- I2C/EI2C: 2 channels
- TSPI: 2 channels
- Analog
- 12-bit ADC: 11/5/6 inputs in 3 units or 8/3/3 inputs in 3 units
- Operational Amplifier (OPAMP): 3 units
- Motor control circuits
- Advanced Programmable Motor Control Circuit (A-PMD)
- Advanced Encoder Input Circuit (32-bit) (A-ENC32)
- Other peripheral circuits
- Remote Control Signal Preprocessor (RMC)
- CRC Calculation Circuit (CRC)
- Timer function
- 32-bit Timer Event Counter (T32A): 6 channels (12 channels if used as a 16-bit timer)
- Watchdog Timer (SIWDT)
- On-chip Debugging – JTAG/SW interface, TRACE (4 bits), NBDIF, or SWD
- Operating Voltage
- 2.7 to 5.5V, single voltage supply
- 4.5 to 5.5 V (All functions), 2.7 to 4.5 V (Without OPAMP, ADC)
- Packages
- LQFP100 (14mm × 14mm, 0.5mm pitch)
- LQFP64 (10mm × 10mm, 0.5mm pitch)
- QFP100 (14mm × 20mm, 0.65mm pitch)
- LQFP64 (14mm × 14mm, 0.8mm pitch)
Toshiba’s M4K microcontrollers are targeted at motor and inverter control applications including consumer products and industrial equipment, such as air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, general-purpose inverter, and industrial motor equipment. Mikroelektronika’s Clicker 4 for TMPM4K board is a compact development board for motor control applications based on Toshiba’s M4K microcontroller.
According to Toshiba, documentation, sample software with use cases, and driver software are currently available. Evaluation boards and development environments are provided in collaboration with Arm. There are plans to expand the flash memory of these products further with a CAN interface.
You can read more about M4K Group microcontrollers in the press release and the product page for the TXZ+ 4A family.
Tomisin is a writer specializing in hardware product reviews, comparisons, and explainers. He is very passionate about small form factor and single-board computers.
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