New TI Arm Cortex-M0+ MCUs MSPM0L series and MSPM0G series

[josip]

Hi,

Just found that TI is going into M0+ world. Don't understand why? Now? And what happen with MSP432?

https://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/msp-low-power-microcontrollers-group/msp430/f/msp-low-power-microcontroller-forum/1204646/faq-important-note-for-early-mspm0-customer

[Gribo]

About a decade too late, but still interesting. If they price them around the 1$ mark (@1K), it will be an even more interesting option.

[JPortici]

Seems they're dropping their 16bit cores, too?
True, 16bitters have a problem in dealing with large memory, as over 64k you need paging in order to access it (or over 32k, see PIC24/dsPIC) but they tend to be simpler, yet very powerful devices.
And Cortex M0 at 80MHz + can is.. bizarre. Why not throw in true 5V IO while they're at it?

Not that i want to touch anything from TI that i can't substitute

[josip]

Seems they're dropping their 16bit cores, too?
True, 16bitters have a problem in dealing with large memory, as over 64k you need paging in order to access it (or over 32k, see PIC24/dsPIC) but they tend to be simpler, yet very powerful devices.
And Cortex M0 at 80MHz + can is.. bizarre. Why not throw in true 5V IO while they're at it?

Not that i want to touch anything from TI that i can't substitute

MSP430F5xx/6xx and FRAM devices are with 20-bit CPUxV2 without memory address space problem.

[Scrts]

Interesting, they have CAN-FD and the temperature is -40C to 125C, but the rating is "Catalog". I would have guessed it is targeted for automotive applications, but seems like not. Weird.

[coppice]

Interesting, they have CAN-FD and the temperature is -40C to 125C, but the rating is "Catalog". I would have guessed it is targeted for automotive applications, but seems like not. Weird.

If you use a process that makes 125C easy to achieve, it opens up a number of industrial areas to commodity parts. The fact they didn't go for -55C to +125C suggests they are just doing what the process naturally makes easy.

[Scrts]

Interesting, they have CAN-FD and the temperature is -40C to 125C, but the rating is "Catalog". I would have guessed it is targeted for automotive applications, but seems like not. Weird.

If you use a process that makes 125C easy to achieve, it opens up a number of industrial areas to commodity parts. The fact they didn't go for -55C to +125C suggests they are just doing what the process naturally makes easy.

Yes, but this still needs to be verified. They also might have more parts falling out of temperature range, compared to -40C to 85C. Maybe they will make it automotive eventually.

[PCB.Wiz]

Hi,

Just found that TI is going into M0+ world. Don't understand why? Now? And what happen with MSP432?

https://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/msp-low-power-microcontrollers-group/msp430/f/msp-low-power-microcontroller-forum/1204646/faq-important-note-for-early-mspm0-customer

Interesting lineup, the SOT-23-16 package is cute. No TQFP32 package ?

They may miss Automotive because these are not 5V parts, whilst most other vendors low pin count alternatives are wide Vcc, TI has chosen 3.6V Max, and MSPM0L110x data says Two 5-V tolerant open-drain IOs
- ie if only 2 open drain pins are '5V tolerant', that's worse that most others 5V tolerance too.

Maybe these target existing MSP430 customers, who are already used to being 3.6V constrained ?  The ADC is better and the price is lower ?

[Scrts]

I work in automotive, particularly ADAS systems and we've not used 5V micros for the last 10 years... I am not sure who needs them anymore. 5V sits on CAN bus, but it's 3.3V after the transceiver.

[JPortici]

I work in automotive, particularly ADAS systems and we've not used 5V micros for the last 10 years... I am not sure who needs them anymore. 5V sits on CAN bus, but it's 3.3V after the transceiver.

engine management, we still have 5V here on all sensors.
Nothing that can't be dealt with level translators, or with opamps when there is one in the mix already, but for some tasks real 5V IOs are nice. Direct driving of mosfets for example, i don't mind not having to use a line of gate drivers or a SBC.
If there are onboard leds, 5V are always nicer
Also last two years all transceivers with VDDIO were impossible to find, those with 5V IO were easier to find, but that is not strictly a design issue.

[ali_asadzadeh]

It's too late, and WCH would rule them all very soon, there is no doubt about it. today ST, NXP and WCH has a mutual webinar, and I think it would show us who is the real player!

[JPortici]

It's too late, and WCH would rule them all very soon, there is no doubt about it. today ST, NXP and WCH has a mutual webinar, and I think it would show us who is the real player!

who cares? free webinars are 99% of the time useless marketing wanks (but a good excuse to waste an hour or two "learning")
they repeat verbatim what you can already find in their application notes, the questions being answered are the usual suspects

[SiliconWizard]

Just found that TI is going into M0+ world. Don't understand why? Now?

Sure, why not, to expand their offering?
It's a trend too, several vendors are currently expanding their lines with lower-end MCUs. Which makes sense. They don't want to loose too much ground to chinese vendors, which many have turned to, not just for cost reasons, but due to the shortage. Now that the shortage has eased, the damage is done and they absolutely need to do something to regain traction.
ST is also focusing on having a low-cost 32-bitters offering with the STM32C0, also M0+ based.

And what happen with MSP432?

I don't know if they plan on retiring it or not, do you have info about that? But I'm not sure why you'd compare those with the new series.
The MSP432 is a Cortex M4 and was their first low-power MCU (AFAIK) after the MSP430 which was a 16-bit proprietary architecture.

Maybe you meant 'what will happen with the MSP430' instead?

The MSP432 itself was never a great commercial success as far as I've seen, so whether the new M0+ series will crush it or not doesn't really matter. But, topping at 48MHz max IIRC, even a M0+ at 80MHz may get you more performance, except if you need a FPU.

[PCB.Wiz]

I work in automotive, particularly ADAS systems and we've not used 5V micros for the last 10 years...

Well, if you work in ADAS, I'm not surprised.

Notice I said low pin count MCUs, which are more commodity parts these days.
Those parts are more commonly Wide VCC, useful so you can directly drive white/blue LEDs and Logic Levels MOSFETS.
They are so cheap, that often designs can use just a fraction of what is on the die.

[Scrts]

It's too late, and WCH would rule them all very soon

In the hobbyist world - maybe. In business world - highly doubt it.

[ArdWar]

Has anyone have some hands on experience with these offerings?
They price it rather aggressively (for an ARM core), and their small / low pin count package are more sensible compared to STM...

[Warhawk]

Has anyone have some hands on experience with these offerings?
They price it rather aggressively (for an ARM core), and their small / low pin count package are more sensible compared to STM...

Yes I have. (Spoiler alert: I am with TI).

You may even find my thread that I started when the first parts were released. Even though I do not work for the MSPM0 product line, I frequently work with other programmable parts, e.g. A/D converters. For this reason, I need some sort of a tool that does the job, allows for parts configuration and sends the data to the PC. I typically use C2000 micros but recently I have started using MSPM0L1306 which quickly became my favorite. Libraries are very reasonable and lightweight. The SysConfig tool works surprisingly well. To be honest, I have not checked a single registers configuration yet.
What I really like are the SOT-23 packages.

My only tip: Use the Code Composer based on Eclipse (even though it is the last release) and not the CCS Theia (VB based) as it lacks features and stability.

I like the MSPM0L1306 so much that I even created a small demo board (including buck-boost module and voltage reference) for hobby purposes. See the pictures attached.