Microcontroller Applications -> Microcontrollers craft a networked future

Microcontrollers craft a networked future
By Bernard Cole, EE Times
May 21, 2001 (2:14 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010521S0061

Activity is heating up in 8- and 16-bit, and 16- and 32-bit deeply embedded microcontrollers. Even as market attention fixates on 32-bit embedded RISC and DSP in everything from set-top boxes and cell phones to Internet-enabled personal digital assistants, the deeply embedded microcontroller space is gaining acreage as opportunities open up. In communications and networking, these parts are playing roles as ancillary processors as they expand the capabilities of existing embedded systems by adding Internet ability.

As the articles in this report illustrate, microcontrollers, despite their more modest capabilities and aims, are operating in the same Net-centric environment, performing traditional control functions as well as new ones relating to connectivity. Now, the aim of system designers is not just to provide control functions, but also to gain access, through Internet protocols, into the inner workings of an embedded application. Once in, u sing traditional Web and Internet mechanisms, they not only can remotely monitor data and operation, but under the right circumstances also can debug, upgrade and fix those systems. The aim is not just connectivity within the "islands of connectivity" already in place with existing control-area networking protocols, but more ubiquitous connectivity to the Internet and World Wide Web, enabling system designers to monitor the microcontrollers in their systems located anywhere from anywhere else, at any time.

To achieve those additional capabilities and move them into the market as fast as possible, developers are weighing a range of alternatives. Ubicom Inc., whose new Internet controller architecture is described in an article in this report, has moved quickly to respond to that opportunity, shifting from a traditional microcontroller emphasis with a focus on the application to one in which the aim is to provide sufficient processing power for both control and network access.

Fueling the connectivity trend happening in the microcontroller realm requires some strategic thinking, says Rene Mitchell, market development manager at Motorola. What's needed is a synergy of embedded, broadband, wireless and Internet design resources.

The approach the company has always taken is to use the most advanced semiconductor process technology to achieve not higher densities, but higher speed, according to Bulent Celebi, Ubicom's chief executive officer and president. Taking advantage of the additional clock speed overhead in a 50- or 100-MHz controller, Celebi said, a developer can implement the functions needed in software rather than wait for a microcontroller supplier to come up with a specific solution or make do with an existing device and some additional external functions.

At the other end of the spectrum is IpSil Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.). Where Ubicom is supplying the various elements in the form of predefined software "ipModules," Ipsil has developed a silicon intellectual-property solution in the form of predesigned functional blocks written in VHDL that will be sold to microcontroller manufacturers. The blocks are to be built using the company's Flowstack architecture, which offers the promise of delivering a fully standards-compliant implementation of TCP/IP in fewer than 5,000 gates.

That approach will drive the cost of adding such functionality to a microcontroller to well under $1, the sweet spot of this market, said company founder H. "Shri" Shrikumar.

The company is already delivering TCP/IP software development kits with microprocessors preprogrammed with the Flowstack TCP/IP stack. By October the company will have silicon and VHDL models of the architecture. "Within the next few years, a TCP/IP interface on a chip will become as commonplace and necessary as a serial interface is today," he said.

Traditional microcontroller vendors who have dominated this space since the early 1970s, such as Motorola, have taken note of the demand and are looking for ways to offer this additional connectivity as quickly as possible. Since the beginning of the year, said Rene Mitchell, market development manager in the Embedded Controller Division at Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector (Austin, Texas), the company has begun to roll out a whole new connectivity strategy that involves initially developing collateral material, actual code, development tools and platforms to speed design of connected microcontrollers. It also includes developing closer ties with software companies such as EmWare Inc., licensing its Embedded Micro Internetworking Technology software for use with Motorola's 8-bit 68HC08-based end products. It is also working with other hardware vendors in this market such as ConnectOne to supply the appropriate peripheral functionality to get an embedded developer up and connected as quickly as possible.

"Our vision here is to be the leader in embedded solutions in a connected world," she said, combining the company's efforts in embedded, broadband, wireless and Internet with a focus of providing connectivity to the person, workplace, home and auto. "Our idea is to provide seamless connectivity as someone moves from environment to environment." And because so much of the personal and workaday environment is pervaded with microcontrollers, the move is under way within Motorola to provide that necessary ubiquitous connectivity.

Connectivity everywhere

The division has been restructured, Mitchell said, to support connectivity at all levels and in all environments. Illustrative of the challenges, she said, are the issues that the company is struggling with in home networking. In this segment, it is only in the last six months that all the elements have begun to mesh. In the past, Motorola has established a leading pres ence in a lot of segments that meet in the home: in the 8-, 16- and 32-bit MCUs in the various household appliances, in the high-end processors in the set-top boxes that receive video, in the DSPs and network processors in the DSL gateways that bring broadband to the home and in processors for entertainment devices and games.

"What has been missing is some way to convert the cloud of disconnectivity between these various segments and create a seamless web of connectivity," Mitchell said. "This means also taking a firm lead in providing the software infrastructure-operating systems, tools and application programming interfaces."