Speedy UARTs run down to 2.5V: News from NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors)

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Philips has developed the industry's first family of 16C UART (universal asynchronous receiver transmitter) devices to operate at 2.5, 3.3 and 5V. Philips' SC16C UARTs feature faster bus interface speeds and higher baud rates than competing solutions. These UARTs also offer customers greater compatibility with high-speed processors and optimal usage of the CPU.

Philips' enhanced SC16C UARTs series will benefit a broad range of applications such as servers, cellular basestations, navigation systems, industrial automation controls, medical instrumentation and point of sale terminals.

Pin-to-pin compatible with industry standard 16C UARTs, all Philips' SC16C UARTs are specified over an extended temperature range (-45 to +85C).

The combination of the three voltage levels and the extended temperature range in one product allows the Philips' SC16C UART to replace up to four competing solutions with a single part.

This results in a lower cost of ownership and a shorter qualification time.

"Philips has a long history of innovation and leadership in industrial UARTs", said Sylvie Kadivar, Marketing Manager, Digital Datacom Product Line in the Semiconductors Division of Philips.

"Building on this experience, the new Philips' SC16C UARTs series addresses the market's need for standard connectivity solutions at lower voltages and higher speeds.

By specifying the SC16C UARTs down to 2.5V with enhanced features, we provide our customers with an attractive solution that meets their current and future needs without increasing their cost of ownership".

At 3.3V, Philips' SC16C UARTs have bus cycle times that are up to 20% faster than the competition under the same loading conditions, and baud rates up to 5Mbit/s (16x) versus 2Mbit/s for competing solutions.

These improvements minimise the CPU wait states resulting in a better utilisation of the processor time and significantly faster transmission and reception of data.

The SC16C UARTs series include single-, dual- and quad-channel solutions that are compatible with Intel and Motorola bus interfaces.

These products come in a range of packaging options including DIL, PLCC and LQFP.

The SC16C UARTs series is immediately available.

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