- Highly integrated C8051F39x/7x MCU family, ideal for optical transceiver modules, motor control, and sensor interfaces -

August 30, 2012 – Silicon Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: SLAB, Country Manager Jong-Chan Lee), a global leader in high-performance analog-intensive mixed-signal ICs, announced today a family of high-performance 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) featuring its innovative mixed-signal technology. These MCUs utilize highly integrated temperature sensors to provide best-in-class accuracy over a wide temperature range and require no calibration. The newly announced C8051F39x/7x MCU family integrates highly integrated, high-performance analog peripherals and a high-speed 8051 CPU into a compact package using a proprietary mix method, providing optimal solutions for optical transceiver modules, sensor interfaces, and brushless DC motor applications for fans, dryers, vacuum cleaners, and remote-controlled model cars.

Numerous consumer and industrial applications require highly accurate temperature sensors to compensate for the temperature-dependent effects on onboard components such as sensors, lasers, or power supplies. The built-in temperature sensors in the C8051F39x/7x MCUs provide ±2 °C accuracy over a wide temperature range (up to 105 °C) without the need for calibration. The C8051F39x/7x product family offers five times higher accuracy than competitor MCUs, enhancing temperature compensation methods and enabling greater reliability for the end product. In addition, the temperature sensor reduces manufacturing costs by eliminating the need for the in-production calibration step required by competitor MCU products.


Because the C8051F39x/7x MCU is more than 30% smaller than competitor solutions, it is an excellent choice for space-constrained applications such as optical transceiver modules. The MCU family's exceptional high integration reduces bill-of-material (BOM) costs and PCB footprint by eliminating external components such as temperature sensors, crystals, differential ADCs, voltage references, and two digital-to-analog converters (DACs). These built-in analog peripherals allow developers to minimize the number of discrete components and reduce BOM costs by more than $0.30. Additionally, the MCU family's innovative crossbar technology provides developers with the flexibility to assign peripheral I/O to specific pins, offering the advantages of easier system layout and the elimination of pin conflicts.

The C8051F39x/7x MCU products are based on the patented pipelined 8051 core, which provides 2.5 times faster performance (up to 50 MIPS) compared to existing competitor products. Pulse-width modulation (PWM) with finer resolution enables the execution of more complex algorithms, allowing for a wide range of motor speed regulation and higher efficiency control in motor control applications. 4 levels of interrupt priority enable fast interrupt processing in real-time applications.

To meet industry requirements for low-power operation and green energy compliance, C8051F39x/7x MCU products are designed to consume a very low 160 µA/MHz in operating mode, saving up to 80% power compared to competitors. The low-power operating mode plays a critical role in portable applications requiring extended battery life and in space-constrained, closed applications such as optical transceiver modules that must minimize heat generation.

The C8051F37x devices are the first Silicon Labs MCU products to feature 512B EEPROM, supporting more than 10 times the write/erase cycles (1M vs. 100k typical) and high-speed programming times (3.5 ms vs. 112 ms) compared to standard flash implementations. These improved write/erase cycles are useful for applications such as wireless sensor nodes and data loggers that repeatedly perform write operations to memory. The high-speed programming time feature is primarily required in applications such as industrial control and optical modules that demand strict calibration loops.

Mike Salas, Vice President and General Manager of the MCU Product Family at Silicon Labs, stated, “The new C8051F39x/7x MCU products leverage our mixed-signal technology to provide advanced embedded analog peripherals, such as high-precision temperature sensors, without impacting product cost, performance, or size,” adding, “Our customers are facing a situation where they need to incorporate a wider range of features within a small footprint.” “Accordingly, we possess outstanding capabilities in designing MCUs that can deliver optimal performance in terms of computational throughput, high integration, power efficiency, and analog performance,” he said.

Comprehensive development kit
Development kits for Silicon Labs’ C8051F39x/7x MCU families provide everything developers need to evaluate hardware and develop code, including C8051F390 or C8051F370 target boards, USB debug adapters/programmers, power supplies, cables, quick start guides, and free downloadable software tools. Silicon Labs’ TOOLSTICK370-A-DC daughter card is a cost-effective and usability-efficient development system that allows developers to directly develop and debug firmware on target C8051F37x/9x MCUs using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Products and Supply
Silicon Labs' C8051F39x/7x MCU products are available in 4 mm x 4 mm 20-pin and 24-pin QFN packages with 1 kB RAM and 4 to 16 kB flash sizes, and are supported in mass production quantities. The F39x/7x devices are footprint and code compatible with Silicon Labs' C8051F33x MCU products. Pricing for the C8051F39x/7x family starts at $0.98 per unit for 10,000-unit quantities. The C8051F390-A-DK and C8051F370-A-DK development kits are available for $69 (USD MSRP). The Toolstick370-A-DC is available for $9.90 (USD MSRP).

Additional information, samples, and development tools for the C8051F39x/7x MCU products can be found at www.silabs.com/pr/8bit-mcu .