The ‘A’ series, a cost-effective branch of the MCX family, has recently been introduced to the market. Similar to other MCX Microcontrollers (MCUs), the new devices are constructed around an Arm Cortex-M33 core, a security-enabled M3.
Initial Parts of the Series
MCX A14x and MCX A15x, equipped with 48MHz and 96MHz cores respectively, are the first parts of this series. The devices are available in Low-Profile Quad Flat Package (LQFP) and Quad-Flat No-Leads (QFN) packages, with a range of 32 to 64 pads.
Key Features
The company notes that the devices are integrated with I3C, I2C and SPI sensor interfaces, and are capable of supporting brushless DC and permanent magnet synchronous motor control. As the platform progresses throughout 2024, the MCX A series plans to offer a variety of package and memory variants, going up to 1Mbyte flash.
Energy Efficient Peripherals
Some of the peripherals in the MCX A series devices are designed to operate autonomously, aiding the CPU in power consumption reduction. These include serial communications with buffers, programmable data collection range and Direct Memory Access (DMA), a 4Msample/s 12bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) with hardware windowing and averaging, a Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC), an operational amplifier with averaging and peak detection, a Pulse-Width Modulator (PWM) with three output pairs with dead-time control, and an encoder for motor applications.
Development Tools
For development purposes, the FRDM-MCXA153 board is available and is compatible with the company’s MCUXpresso ecosystem of software and tools. Developers have the freedom to work with either MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code or Eclipse-based MCUXpresso Integrated Development Environment (IDE) from NXP. Alternatively, they can choose to work with IDEs from IAR and Keil, which also provide safety certification. NXP offers drivers and middleware with examples and tools for device configuration and security. FreeRTOS and Zephyr are also supported.
Potential Applications
These devices are expected to find applications in various domains such as industrial sensors, motor control, battery controls and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Where to Find the MCX A Processors
For more information and to purchase the MCX A processors, one can access the official website of the company.
