“We are Developing Non-volatile Memory to Replace Flash”

Brian Crutcher, Vice President and General Manager, Microcontroller Products, Semiconductor Group, Texas Instruments Inc., recently spoke to EDN Asia on a wide range of MCU issues during his visit to India. Excerpts:

EDN Asia: What are the main trends you see in MCU technology and market?
Crutcher: Low cost, low power, analog integration, more memory, and more software to run in the field are among the main trends. 16-bit and 32-bit MCUs are seeing higher growth rates than 8-bit MCUs. Though 8-bit MCUs contribute the highest in terms of number of units sold, many 8-bit applications are migrating to 16-bit. This trend will continue. Even power metering and lighting applications, which have generally used 8-bit, are now moving toward 16-bit. The technology node is advancing toward 90nm though we continue to have huge markets for products based on higher nodes.

EDN Asia: This is significantly behind MPU, which is moving beyond 45nm?
Crutcher: In MCUs you don’t need the kind of speed you need for MPUs. You should not go to lower nodes just for the sake of using the latest technology. There must be a consumer need to justify the costs. Typical MCU markets are stable for long, unlike MPU markets; so MCUs don’t become obsolete as fast as MPUs. Besides, the incorporation of analog and Flash into the MCU chip makes MCU designs far more complicated than MPU designs. I believe that MCUs are likely to remain 2-5 nodes behind MPUs.

EDN Asia: How does TI differentiate itself in the MCU market?
Crutcher: Our reference designs are 80 percent complete, giving the customer an opportunity for faster time-to-market at a competitive price. Almost all the components in the reference design are from TI, including graphic libraries, USB libraries, software development tools, etc. Even IPs are from TI, though at times we may use other IPs for industry standard products wherein there is no value addition.

EDN Asia: Can you talk of some technology that is on the anvil in TI and is ripe enough to be introduced in the market in the near future?
Crutcher: A technology that we are developing and nobody else has is a non-volatile memory to replace Flash. This technology is FRAM-based and will be introduced into the market this year.

EDN Asia: How does it differ from the one offered by companies such as Ramtron?
Crutcher: FRAM has long been available in the market in discrete units. What we are doing is integrating FRAM into MCUs. The new technology will bring great benefits to the customer. It is low power. You can write 500 times faster than Flash and a trillion times over FRAM. The unified memory can be partitioned to suit customer needs. All these advantages you get at a cost that is comparable to Flash.

EDN Asia: Can you say something about the new MSP430 MCU?
Crutcher: It is a 16-bit performance MCU for an 8-bit price. This new ultra-low power 16-bit RISC mixed-signal MCU line starts at 25 cents (in 100K volumes) to give 8-bit developers up to 10X performance and 10X battery life. TI provides robust design support, including technical documents, training, tools, and software. We are driving down into the 8-bit market with 16-bit MCUs, providing the customer with versatility to go at the low end as well as the high end at the cost of a low-end MCU.

EDN Asia: How does TI look at India as a design center?
Crutcher: TI has been among the first MNCs to set up a design center in India. TI design center in Bangalore has 1,200-1,300 engineers. This year we are heavily investing in India, both in design as well as sales activities. Traditionally we have designed DSPs in India. But now we are increasing MCU design activities in this country. This year we aim at doubling MCU portfolio over that we had in 2008. India will play an important role in enabling us achieve our goal.
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Brian Crutcher, Vice President and General Manager, Microcontroller Products, Semiconductor Group, Texas Instruments Inc.