TI chips in on energy efficiency

YOU HAVE TO be a smart cookie these days to improve on energy efficiency, but Texas Instruments reckons all you really need are smart chips.

Set to introduce a new line of microcontrollers called ‘Piccolo’ today, TI claims the diminutive size and equally diminutive price of its new chips make them well worthwhile.

TI puts forward the case that most products with embedable chips controlling their power supply or motor are fairly crude in their usage modes, allowing the power to either be on or off, but not offering a more flexible compromise. TI spinner, Keith Ogboenyiya , however, reckons that Piccolo’s “specialised power electronics” can “add real-time control and system management using just one microcontroller”.

The series purportedly features a programmable, floating-point control law accelerator (CLA) which frees up the CPU somewhat to handle I/O and feedback loop metrics, which TI claims results in a 5x performance boost for common closed-loop applications.

The chip can also apparently be bunged into anything from electric cars, to home appliances like air conditioners, LED lighting and even solar panels.

At package sizes starting at 38-pins, 32 bits and $2 a chip, TI might just have a piccolo of a point that they’re worth their weight in chip fat. µ