Texas Instruments (TI) India has developed a generation of ultra-low power microcontrollers, MSP430F5xx, which can aid medical applications. These microcontrollers will offer 50 per cent more processing performance and cent per cent improvement in memory compared to previous generations. This will help electronic equipment manufacturers to offer products that consume very little power, thereby increasing battery life and offer lower operational cost.

The new generation of microcontrollers will particularly help in development of portable devices in medical sector which will include the wireless electrocardiogram and electronic stethoscope. These microcontrollers will significantly enhance the performance of devices like panel meters, III-phase meters, UPS and inverters, LED lighting, portable ultrasound scanners and electronic thermometers.

MSP430 microcontrollers provide the lowest power consumption for devices that can provide up to 25 MHz peak performance, increased Flash and RAM memory and integrated peripherals such as radio frequency (RF), USB, encryption and LCD interfaces. With as low as 160 µA/MHz (microamp per megahertz) active power consumption and 1.5 µA in standby, MSP430F5xx MCUs enables longer battery life and the ability to use smaller batteries for portable applications.

With 50 per cent more processing performance and double the Flash and RAM memory of previous 1xx, 2xx or 4xx generations, F5xx devices help systems perform demanding tasks while operating from very limited power sources. Designers can tap into peak execution performance of up to 25 MHz while consuming as low as 160uA/MHz (microamp per megahertz). A wake up time of less than 5 microseconds with full status retention from both standby and sleep modes provides full performance on demand and instant reaction to events like external interrupts. Multi-channel direct memory access (DMA) permits data exchange with peripherals while the core remains in low-power modes. The industry's highest code density among comparable devices maximizes performance while minimizing memory and power requirements.

According to Shailesh Thakurdesai, business development manager, Texas Instruments India the Indian Analog semiconductor market is estimated to be $437 million by 2009. Texas Instruments India with over 40,000 products, has the largest product portfolio to tap this growing market. We expect this new generation of microcontrollers make a big impact in the Indian electronics industry which include the portable medical instrumentation.

In August 1985, TI set up a R&D facility in Bangalore and became the first global technology company to establish its presence in India. Ever since, India has been a great resource for TI for great talent, great leadership and great innovation.