Freescale's new MCUs for smart meters

Freescale Semiconductor has introduced new microcontroller chips for smart meters such as electricity and flow meters along with ready reference designs. The specialty highlighted in these MCUs is they are tamper proof with extra layer of security for secure smart meter designs. In case of a tamper or fraud, these devices send a trigger or error notice to the utility company when tampering is detected.

"Our goal is to provide developers with comprehensive plug-and-play solutions designed to alleviate cost and time-to-market concerns, while bringing everyone a step closer to a unified smart grid," said Jeff Bock, director of product marketing for Industrial and Multi-Market microcontrollers at Freescale. "Freescale's smart energy technologies address smart metering and smart grid applications across the grid, enabling customers worldwide to provide secure, next-generation energy management solutions."

Another key function in these MCUs is real-time clock (RTC); enabling implementation of different tariffs depending on time of the day, maximum demand and load availability.

The other notable features are these MCUs run separately with its own battery power supply in the event of a main power failure, two separate blocks of flash memory allow a meter to continue operating on one flash bank while the other is being updated with new firmware.

To know more visit www.freescale.com/metering and www.freescale.com/mqx