Date: 8th May 2011
Processor companion chip with FRAM, RTC
and TCXO
Ramtron International Corporation has announced upgrades
to the company's family of Processor Companion products
targeted at the high-volume, processor-based electronics
system market. Ramtron's new Processor Companion integrates
a precise Real-Time Clock (RTC) with a temperature compensation
crystal oscillator (TCXO), 256-kilobits (Kb) of nonvolatile
ferroelectric random access memory (F-RAM), and a suite
of peripheral functions. FM31T378 is suggested for use in
meters, elapsed time monitors, time-of-use recording, and
other intensive data-collection applications that require
accurate time-stamping.
The Processor Companion with TCXO also features a processor
supervisor that supports virtually any microcontroller-
or microprocessor-based design. The supervisory function
detects power supply faults and will initiate a reset to
escape software lockup conditions.
The other integrated functions include:
F-RAM nonvolatile memory - built on an advanced, high-reliability
ferroelectric process, Ramtron's F-RAM offers low power
operation, NoDelay writes, and 100-trillion (1e14) high
endurance reads/write cycles.
Temperature Compensated Real-Time Clock Operation - an
embedded crystal and on-board temperature sensor internally
calibrates the crystal temperature characteristics with
accuracy to ±2.6min/yr (±5ppm) over the industrial
temperature range (-40°C to +85°C). The precise
time-keeping component is shielded from security breaches
and environmental effects such as vibration, humidity, and
spurious EMI/RFI.
Low-Voltage Reset - a programmable low-VDD reset, a programmable
watchdog timer, a backup power source controller, and a
manual reset function are standard on Ramtron's Processor
Companion devices.
Additional Peripherals - two battery-backed event counters
with a tamper interrupt output, a 32.768 kHz clock output,
a lockable 64-bit serial number, and a general-purpose comparator
that can be used for an early power-fail (NMI) interrupt.
Pricing and Availability: Samples are available
for the FM31T378 in a 14-pin SOIC package, with prices starting
at $3.89 for 25K piece quantities.
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