TI MSP432
| Designer | ARM/Texas Instruments |
|---|---|
| Bits | 32-bit |
| Introduced | 2015 |
The MSP432 is a mixed-signal microcontroller family from Texas Instruments. It is based on a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F CPU, and extends their 16-bit MSP430 line, with a larger address space for code and data, and faster integer and floating point calculation than the MSP430. Like the MSP430, it has a number of built-in peripheral devices, and is designed for low power requirements.
Contents
Comparison to MSP430/MSP430X
Modern embedded computing requires large amounts of data and code, and often calls for floating point calculations. The MSP430's 16-bit architecture was already once extended to 20 bits (MSP430X) to accommodate those needs, but the resulting 1MB limit is still too small, and the instruction set extensions slow down the code execution. Furthermore, MSP430 architecture does not include a hardware floating point unit. IEEE754 floating point computations are emulated in software[1] using integer arithmetic on its native 16-bit data, and are quite slow.[2]
The ARM Cortex-M4F architecture used in the MSP432 line allows up to 4GB of unified program/data/peripheral memory, and has a built-in single precision IEEE754-compatible Floating Point Unit.
| MSP430 | MSP430X | MSP432 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address space | 16 bits | 20 bits | 32 bits |
| Memory address space | 64kB | 1MB | 4GB |
| Clock speed | 25 MHz | 48 MHz | |
| Floating Point | soft | IEEE754 32 bit FPU | |
| Typical Dhrystone 2.1 (DMIPS/MHz) | 0.288 [3] | 1.196 | |
| ULPBench low power score | 120 | 167.4 | |
The peripherals in MSP432 are similar to those in MSP430, and there is a built-in ROM driver library that facilitates software reuse.[4]
Differences from MSP430 include:
- redesigned interrupt mechanism, using Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller (NVIC)
- improved resolution (14 bit) and speed (1MSPS) ADC
- redesigned uDMA engine
- ARM-specific SysTick and Timer32 timer/counter blocks
Relationship to other TI ARM Cortex-M devices
The MSP432 is similar to the Stellaris LM4F120 and Tiva-C TM4C123 parts previously available from TI. The MSP432 is slightly slower, cheaper and uses significantly less power, and it does not have a built-in USB block, wide 32/64 bit timer units, or the quadrature encoder blocks.
Several new subsystems were introduced in MSP432:
- Port Mapping Controller (PMAP) maps built-in peripherals to physical pins
- Power Control Manager (PCM) switches between full speed and low power modes (LPM 0, 3, 3.5, 4 and 4.5).
- AES and CRC hardware accelerator
MSP432 devices
The MSP432 devices are named similarly to those of the MSP430. For instance MSP432P401RIPZT consists of the following pieces:
- MSP432: Standard prefix.
- P: Indicates a Performance and Low Power series device.
- 4: First digit '4' indicates a flash 48 MHz device.
- 0: Second digit '0' indicates a General Purpose class.
- 1: Third digit '1' denotes peripheral configuration including 1 MHz 14-bit ADC.
- R: Fourth digit 'R' indicates 256kB of Flash and 64kB of SRAM, whereas 'M' indicates 128kB of Flash and 32kB of SRAM.
- I: Temperature range: S = 0...50 °C, I = -40...85 °C, T = –40..105 °C.
- PZ: Packaging code
- T: Distribution format: small reel
MSP432P4xx
The first released MSP432 general purpose chip family:
- up to 256kB flash memory
- 48 MHz system clock, programmable for speed/power tradeoff
- 1.62-3.7V supply voltage
- 90uA/MHz active power and 850nA RTC operation
- 14-bit 1MSPS differential SAR ADC with internal voltage reference
- two analog comparators
- up to four 16-bit timers w/PWM
- real-time clock/calendar
- serial UART/IrDA/SPI/i2c
- 48 GPIO pins, some with interrupt/wake-up, glitch filtering, and high current drive
- DSP and AES256 accelerator with 128 , 192 and 256 bit AES and 32 bit CRC
- JTAG and 2-pin SWD debug interface with Serial Wire Trace and power debug and profiling
Hardware development platforms
MSP-EXP432P401R Launchpad
This Launchpad board is compatible with a suite of MSP430 stackable BoosterPacks, including the low-power SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3100 BoosterPack. It includes a USB debugging interface that can be connected directly to the development workstation.
MSP-TS432PZ100 target board
This is a higher cost development board with a 100-pin LQFP ZIF socket used by initial MSP432 chips, and a JTAG and Spy Bi-Wire debug interfaces.
References
- ↑ MSP430 FP math library
- ↑ See section 9, FFT Benchmark
- ↑ DMIPS on MSP430 using MSP430F149 and CrossWorks compiler
- ↑ MSP432 Platform Porting Guide
