Dual Instruction Sets Allow MCU Optimisation

The LPC2460 MCU is built around a 16-bit and 32-bit ARM7TDMI-S CPU core with real-time debug interfaces that include both JTAG and embedded trace.

The LPC2460 can execute both 32-bit ARM and 16-bit Thumb instructions. Support for the two instruction sets means engineers can choose to optimise their application for either performance or code size at the subroutine level. When the core executes instructions in Thumb state it can reduce code size by more than 30%, with only a small loss in performance; whereas executing 32-bit ARM instructions maximises core performance.

The LPC2460 microcontroller is ideal for multi-purpose and industrial communication applications. It incorporates a 10/100 Ethernet Media Access Controller (MAC), a USB full-speed device/host/OTG controller with 4kbyte of end-point RAM, four UARTs, two Controller Area Network (CAN) channels, an SPI interface, two Synchronous Serial Ports (SSP), three I²C interfaces, and an I²S interface.

A range of features are implemented to support the collection of serial communications interfaces, such as on-chip 4MHz internal precision oscillator and 98kbyte of RAM including 16kbyte of SRAM for general purpose DMA and 2kbyte of battery-powered SRAM. An External Memory Controller (EMC) is also included, which provides support for asynchronous static memory devices such as RAM, ROM and Flash, as well as dynamic memories such as SDRAM.

The MCU also features various 32-bit timers, an improved 10-bit ADC, a 10-bit DAC, two PWM units, four external interrupt pins, and up to 160 fast GPIO lines. The LPC2460 connects 64 of the GPIO pins to the hardware-based Vector Interrupt Controller (VIC), which means these external inputs can generate edge-triggered interrupts. All of these features make the LPC2460 particularly suitable for industrial control systems.

 

FEATURES 72MHz ARM7TDMI-S processor 98kbyte of on-chip SRAM Dual Advanced High-performance Bus (AHB) Advanced Vectored Interrupt Controller (VIC) supporting up to 32 vectored interrupts General-purpose DMA controller Ethernet MAC with MII/RMII interface and associated DMA controller USB 2.0 full-speed dual-port device/host/OTG controller with on-chip PHY and associated DMA controller CAN controller with two channels Standard ARM test/debug interface for compatibility with existing tools Three reduced-power modes: Idle, sleep, and power-down Two independent power domains for fine tuning of power consumption Clock dividers for each peripheral

APPLICATIONS Industrial control Medical systems Protocol converters Communications

 

NXP / LPC2460