1996-01-29 , ESC9601

Readers Flood Trade Press With Requests For XA-G3 Information.

Eindhoven -- January 29, 1996 --Two leading electronic design trade publications, EDN and EE Product News , Electronic Design News and Electronic Engineering Product News, named Philips Semiconductors" XA-G3 16-bit 80C51 compatible microcontroller as an outstanding product for 1995. EDN readers voted the XA-G3 as one of the "Hot 100 Products of 1995," while 460 reader inquiries earned the XA-G3 EEPN's "Product of the Year" honor.

"EDN readers found the Philips XA-G3 to be one of the most interesting products of 1995," said Steve Leibson, editor-in-chief of EDN. "Out of several thousand products EDN introduced in 1995, the Philips XA-G3 was among those that generated the greatest amount of reader response."

"The 'Products of the Year' represent those products which pulled the most reader inquiries in their product categories," said Joseph Del Gatto, editorial director at EEPN. "Our publication goes to a broad spectrum of electronic equipment manufacturers in a wide cross section of industries telecom, computers, automotive, medical, and so on. Because our readers play key roles in the decision making process for selecting products to be used in new OEM designs, we feel the number of inquiries is an important measure of the significance of a new product."

Microcontrollers are the "brains" inside various electronic devices, ranging from consumer electronics such as VCRs, to industrial applications such as process control systems. The Intel-developed 80C51 architecture is the most popular architecture for 8-bit microcontrollers. Philips Semiconductors is the leading supplier of 80C51 microcontrollers.

The XA-G3, the first member of Philip's 16-bit XA (eXtended Architecture) family, is the first microcontroller on the market to extend the popular 80C51 architecture to 16-bit operation, making it ideal for use in most high performance embedded applications.

The XA-G3 offers complete upward compatibility with the 80C51, allowing system designers to use their existing investments in 80C51 code while taking full advantage of speeds 10 to 100 times faster than is possible with 8-bit 80C51 microcontrollers.

The Philips XA-G3 easily handles a broad range of embedded requirements in the computing, communications, automotive, and consumer market segments. Applications include PC peripherals, television, medical monitoring systems, air traffic control systems, and other applications where high performance is critical.

"The response from customers has been nothing less than outstanding," said David Fair, marketing manager for Philips' microcontroller business unit. "Out of more than a thousand new products that are introduced each year, the XA-G3 stands out in the eyes of EDN and EEPN readers as the right solution for the products they design. This proves that Philips Semiconductors is committed to producing products that make things better."

While the XA-G3 is compatible with the 80C51, its performance as a 16-bit microcontroller has not been compromised. The XA-G3 is two to three times faster than the 80C196 (at the same clock frequency). With a 25MHz clock the XA-G3 has a typical instruction execution time of 120 nanoseconds. With all this FLEXibility, the XA-G3 is very competitively priced under $7 in OEM quantities. The XA-G3 is available for shipment April 1996.

Specific features of the XA-G3 include 32K of on-chip EPROM/ROM program memory, 512 bytes of on-chip data RAM, and 1MB of external program and data memory space. It also offers 20-bit external addressing, three standard 16-bit counter/timers with enhanced features, and a watchdog timer.

The XA-G3 also incorporates two enhanced UARTs, and four 8-bit I/O ports with software configurable outputs. It supports 2.7V to 5.5V static operation, and is available in 44-pin QFP and 44-pin PLCC versions. Both versions are pin-compatible with the 80C51.

The total world microcontroller market exceeded $8 billion in 1994. The largest portion of this market consists of 8-bit devices, representing just over 50 percent ($4.4 billion), and is growing at the rate close to 15 percent a year. Philips Semiconductors is the leading supplier of the most popular 8-bit architecture, the 80C51. It offers over 50 derivatives and, in 1994, In-Stat, an independent semiconductor research firm, reported sales of $280 million. With the introduction of the XA-G3, Philips extends its 80C51 leadership to the 16-bit market.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Philips Electronics NV headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the tenth largest semiconductor supplier in the world. Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia, and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by regional customer application labs.