NEC Electronics Announces New 8-Bit and 32-Bit Microcontrollers for Inverter Control

Expands Product Line-Up for Household Electric Appliances

electronicaUSA/Embedded Systems Conference, SAN FRANCISCO, March 29, 2004 – NEC Electronics Corporation and its subsidiaries in the United States and Europe, NEC Electronics America, Inc. and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, today introduced two series of single-chip microcontrollers (MCUs) for inverter-control applications, the µPD78F0714 and V850ES/IK1™. The products are designed for use in industrial and home electronics products such as refrigerators, washers, dryers and air-conditioners to provide lower noise, vibration and power consumption through intelligent motor control. The increased application of precise motor-control capability and technology for such products also offers an eco-friendly advantage: the lower power consumption results in less pollution generated. With the introduction of these new products, NEC Electronics’ offering of MCUs for inverter-control systems now covers operating frequencies from eight megahertz (MHz) to 80 MHz to offer the flexibility necessary to meet varying performance demands required by different customer markets.

“Through the introduction of these new products, we are enriching our product line-up for inverter-control applications, and we hope these products will contribute to the spread of environment-friendly, energy-saving household electric appliances,” said Yoshihiko Miura, 2nd Solutions Division, NEC Electronics Corporation. “By embedding the safety functions on chip that were traditionally supported by discrete components, we were able to provide the cost and performance required for eco-friendly consumer products.”

The µPD78F0714 operates at 20 MHz and is the latest addition to the company’s 78K0™ series of 8-bit MCUs. The device offers 32 kilobytes (K) embedded flash memory and 1K random access memory (RAM), along with dedicated 3-phase inverter functions and an on-chip debug (OCD) function that allows developers to design and debug products in circuit via a serial connection.

The V850ES/IK1 is NEC Electronics’ first product for inverter applications to adopt the V850ES™ CPU core, which uses the popular V850E™ structure to deliver excellent performance for cost-sensitive consumer products. The V850ES/IK1 is comprised of three product lines: the µPD70F3329 with128K of flash memory and 6K RAM, the µPD703327 with 64K of mask read-only memory (ROM) and 4K RAM, and the µPD703329 with 128K of mask ROM and 6K RAM. They also include dedicated peripherals for 3-phase inverter control.

Both the µPD78F0714 and V850ES/IK1 series come with a number of safety features necessary for motor-control applications. These include an emergency shutdown pin for the inverter timer outputs to protect the motor and inverter, and a power on clear (POC) and a low voltage interrupt (LVI) for a controlled system shutdown and recovery in the event of power failure.
The µPD78F0714 and V850ES/IK1 series are also suitable for a variety of other applications including industrial inverter-control systems such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), AC servos and general-purpose inverters, as well as electric bicycles with inverter modules, which serve as power generators for variable voltage.

Availability

The V850ES/IK1 and µPD78F0714 are scheduled to start sampling in May and June 2004, respectively. Mass production is scheduled to start in November 2004 with monthly production volume expected to reach 300,000 units by 2005.

NEC Electronics Microcontroller Products for Inverter Control

About NEC Electronics

NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system solutions for the mobile handsets, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets, and platform solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 24 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.necelam.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.ee.nec.de). In addition to marketing, selling and supporting NEC Electronics products to customers in their respective regions, NEC Electronics America and NEC Electronics Europe also operate local manufacturing facilities in Roseville, California, and Ballivor, Ireland, respectively. Additionally, NEC Electronics America for North America and NEC Electronics Europe for Europe are the sales and marketing channels of NEC AM-LCD and PDP modules. For additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit www.necel.com.

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