Infineon Technologies introduced its new XMC4000 32-bit microcontroller family, which uses the Cortex-M4 processor from ARM. The XMC4000 family helps to improve energy efficiency, supports a large number of communication standards and reduces software complexity during development. The target applications of the XMC4000 family include electric drives, solar inverters and the automation of manufacturing and buildings.
XMC stands for “Cross-Market Microcontroller” and means that, due to its configurability, the XMC4000 family is suitable for a wide range of industrial applications. Infineon is using this product to close the performance gap between the 16-bit XE166 family and the 32-bit TriCore family. The XMC4000 portfolio consists of five series: XMC4100, XMC4200, XMC4400, XMC4500 and XMC4700. These series mainly differ in terms of core frequency, memory capacity and peripheral functions and number of I/O’s.
The XMC4000 family has a powerful CPU subsystem, DSP functionality, a floating point unit, a fast Flash memory with only 22ns read time and error correction code (ECC), large SRAM and extended peripheral functions. The extensive range of peripherals includes new timer modules, up to four parallel 12-bit A/D converters with a sampling rate of 70ns and a conversion time of 500ns, up to two 12-bit D/A converters, up to four high-resolution PWM channels, integrated delta-sigma demodulator modules and touch button modules. Powerful communication is provided by an IEEE 1588-compatible Ethernet MAC, USB 2.0, CAN and SD/MMC interfaces and up to six serial communication channels which can be individually configured as UART, SPI, Quad SPI, IIC, IIS or LIN. In addition, the XMC4000 family offers a fast external bus interface that supports synchronous standards such as SDRAM or Burst Flash, and asynchronous standards such as SRAM, NAND Flash and NOR Flash.
The first device in the 32-bit XMC4000 family that Infineon is bringing to market is the XMC4500 series. These microcontrollers offer a 120-MHz-CPU, up to 1 MByte of embedded Flash memory, 160 Kbytes of RAM and a comprehensive range of peripheral and interface functions. The peripherals include four parallel fast 12-bit A/D converter modules, two 12-bit D/A converters, four delta sigma demodulator modules, six capture/compare units (CCU4 and CCU8), and a module for eight touch buttons. Communication functions comprise interfaces for Ethernet, USB, and SD/MMC. In addition, the XMC4000 family offers three CAN modules, six serial communication channels and one external bus interface for communication. The package options are LQFP-144, LQFP-100 and LFBGA-144.
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Samples of the XMC4500 series will be available from March 2012. High-volume production of the XMC4500 products starts in May 2012. For development support Infineon offers a modular design kit with which up to three additional application boards can be connected to the basic design board, depending on the respective application requirements. Samples of the XMC4400, XMC4200 and XMC4100 series will be available from the fourth quarter of 2012. Depending on the XMC4000 series and package selected, the unit price for a XMC4000 microcontroller ranges between Euro 1 and Euro 7.
