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CAMPBELL,
CA -- April 5, 1999 --
Summit
Microelectronics has added the SMS8198
to its portfolio of programmable voltage
supervisory circuits. The SMS8198
was designed to be a companion chip to the Philips
TriMedia processor.
The
SMS8198
provides a precision reset controller for insuring
the TriMedia processor (and any peripheral
circuitry) is held in reset whenever VDD is below
the operating design specification. The
SMS8198
also incorporates 2K bytes of nonvolatile memory
with a two-wire serial interface.
The
TriMedia family is general-purpose microprocessors
for real-time processing of audio, video, graphics
and communications data-streams. They are very
flexible, due in part, to the post-reset boot
sequence that configures the processor for the
specific application.
"It
is in this mode that the SMS8198
provides an elegant solution," explained Richard
Palm, Summit's vice president of marketing. "Our
device coordinates the release of the reset to the
processor, plus it provides the 2K-bytes of
nonvolatile configuration memory that gets
downloaded to the processor."
The
Vtrip point, system voltage level at which reset is
activated or released, is nominally set at 2.90V.
Over the full industrial temperature range the
Vtrip level will maintain its accuracy +2%.
Depending upon the system specifications the Vtrip
level can be trimmed +210mV in 30mV
increments. Summit performs the trimming operation
as a post-assembly final-test operation where a
nonvolatile reference voltage is adjusted. The
Vtrip level can be specified when the customer
orders the device.
Another
unique feature is a hardware write lockout pin.
Once the PC board has been manufactured, the
supplier would not want the end user to be able to
write to the memory and possibly disable the
processor.
In
the Tri-media processor application the device is
envisioned to be a "write once" memory, but it has
been designed for 1,000,000 write cycles and data
retention of greater than 100 years.
The
SMS8198
is available for operation over the industrial
temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees Centigrade.
The circuit is available in surface-mount SO-8, and
8-pin PDIP packages, with prices starting at $1.68
in 1,000-unit quantities.
Summit
specializes in programmable analog circuits using
electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
(EEPROM) technologies to provide cost-effective
solutions to a variety of applications in the
telecommunications markets. These EEPROM memory
bits are used for product configuration and
trimming of the analog circuits. The Company is
currently marketing four different families that
use the programmable analog circuits;
microprocessor supervisors, Nonvolatile DACs, Hot
Swap Controllers and Nonvolatile Data Acquisition
Systems. Several of these circuits offer extra
EEPROM cells that can be used for any system memory
function.
Press
Contacts:
Rick Orlando, President & CEO: (408)
378-6461,
Rich
Palm, Vice President of Marketing: (408) 378-6461,
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Summit
Microelectronics, Inc.
1717 Fox Drive
San Jose, CA 95131-2312
Tel: +1.408-436-9890
Email:
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