NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR OFFERS INDUSTRY'S FIRST FULL LINE OF ONE TIME PROGRAMMABLE (OTP) OPTIONS WITH THEIR ENTIRE COP8(tm) EMBEDDED MICROCONTROLLER FAMILY

• Reduced lead times
• Quick time to volume
• Reduced costs

SANTA CLARA, CA. October 30, 1995 --National Semiconductor announced today the planned availability of low cost, short leadtime, One Time Programmable (OTP) solutions across the entire family of COP8 microcontrollers. Building off of their combined expertise in both the high-volume microcontroller and EPROM technologies, National has developed OTP versions of all COP8 controllers that provide lower component costs as well as significantly reduced production leadtimes. These new COP8 OTPs offer the same wide range of features inherent to the COP8 family, achieve price levels as low as 1.5x equivalent to Masked ROM prices, and will have lead times averaging only 2 to 4 weeks.

One Time Programmable microcontrollers are important to systems manufacturers in three different arenas. First, they represent the most viable alternative for relatively low-volume production (1,000 to 10,000 devices per month) where Masked ROM parts may not be cost effective. Second, they offer an initial production ramp-up alternative for mid- volume/high manufacturers (5,000 to 100,000 devices per month) that facilitates design refinement prior to moving to Masked ROM parts. Third, they represent a rapid prototyping alternative for even those high-volume systems manufacturers (greater than 50,000 devices per month) who need to move directly into production with Masked ROM parts. According to Amir Nazari, product marketing manager for embedded controllers, "Since its introduction in 1986, the COP8 family has become one of the established leaders in 8-bit embedded control by giving designers maximum performance and the flexibility of special configurations. The addition of OTP options for all of the family members will now give customers even greater flexibility from a production standpoint. It's all part of National's commitment to provide the right solutions at the right price right now."

Full Featured, Single-Chip Microcontrollers Designed From The Ground Up

The National Semiconductor COP8 family currently consists of fifteen distinct 8-bit embedded microcontrollers which offer a wide range of variations regarding peripherals, features and EPROM/ROM sizes. Since they have been designed specifically as microcontrollers, rather than being adapted from general purpose microprocessor designs, all of the COP8 family members provide a high level of integration with on-board peripherals and subsystems plus highly efficient processing of instructions. The COP8 is typically a"one chip" solution because it includes on-chip features such as serial I/O, highly-configurable multiple I/O lines, power management & Halt/Idle functions, plus a variety of timer options. Special COP8 configurations can also include tightly integrated on-chip features such as A/D conversion, hardware multiply & divide, or a Car Area Network (CAN) interface. Highly optimized use of special instructions means that COP8 microcontrollers need to fetch fewer bytes of code and process fewer conditional jumps to perform a complex task. Typically, over 70% of COP8 instructions are single byte/single cycle, resulting in much smaller and faster code.

COP8 microcontrollers are used in a wide variety of applications including automotive, cordless telephony, electronic metering, utility communications and small appliances. Over the past few years, National Semiconductor's COP8 8-bit embedded controllers, with their capabilities for low-voltage usage and low-EMI emission, have seen significant growth as higher-performance replacements for 4-bit applications, lower-cost replacements for 16-bit applications and technological improvements over mechanical control techniques. The addition of One Time Programmable options for all COP8 microcontrollers will accelerate this growth by continuing to improve the COP8 family's range of features and cost/performance options.

EMB95002EMCO