MCS 96 Microcontroller Overview
Intel^® MCS 96 microcontroller family of products are popular for 16-bit embedded microcontrollers. The 8XC196 products are found in a variety of embedded applications. The high-performance register to register architecture is well suited for complex real-time control applications such as hard disk drives, modems, printers, pattern recognition and motor control. Our broad portfolio of 8XC196 microcontroller products has been designed to meet your varying peripheral, memory size, addressability and performance requirements.

The 8XC196 family shares a common core architecture which is register based. The MCS 96 microcontroller register architecture eliminates the accumulator bottleneck and enables fast context switching. All devices have bit, byte, word and some 32-bit operations. The table below summarizes the capture and generation of high speed signals on the HSIO and EPA.

The 8XC196 Bus Controller features programmable wait state generation. 8- or 16-bit bus width and features a HOLD/HLDA protocol for multiprocessor systems. The 8XC196NP/NU have dynamically selectable multiplexed/demultiplexed bus and a chip select unit.

The MCS 96 microcontroller product family has three distinct product lines. The most recent products form the EPA family. This family of devices has the advanced peripherals which include a flexible input/output system and EPA (Event Processor Array). The HSIO family consists of devices that have the High Speed Input/Output sub-system. The Motion Control family is comprised of devices that support motor control applications. This family also uses the EPA system for I/O control.

The 8XC196 Bus Controller features programmable wait state generation. 8- or 16-bit bus width and features a HOLD/HLDA protocol for multiprocessor systems. The 8XC196NP/NU have dynamically selectable multiplexed/demultiplexed bus and a chip select unit.

The MCS 96 microcontroller product family has three distinct product lines. The most recent products form the EPA Family. This family of devices has the advanced peripherals which include a flexible input/output system and EPA (Event Processor Array). The HSIO Family consists of devices that have the High Speed Input/Output sub-system. The Motor Control Family is comprised of devices that support motor control applications. This family also uses t he EPA system for I/O control.

MCS 296 Microcontroller Overview
Intel's MCS 296 microcontroller is the latest addition to the Intel MCS 96 microcontroller family. The 80296SA is performance enhanced from the 8XC196NP and 8XC196NU controllers while maintaining binary code compatibility. Hence, the 80296SA can be dropped into a 8XC196NP/NU socket and immediately boost system performance.

The 80296SA exhibits improved math performance over previous architectures making it suitable for embedded digital signal processing and feedback control systems. The 80296SA can perform 12.5 DSP MIPS and 16 general purpose MIPS. The 80296SA has 512 bytes of register RAM and 2 Kbytes of code/data RAM. The 80296SA utilizes the same peripherals as the 8XC196NP/NU. Additionally, like the 8XC196NU, the 80296SA includes a phase-lock loop. With the phase lock loop, an external clock drives the device at one half or one quarter the maximum internal clock frequency. Therefore, the system is designed for lower frequency external clock or oscillators while maintaining the maximum internal operating frequency. Enhancements to the chip select unit, the interrupts, and the timers were also implemented. The windowing scheme was enhanced to include the windowing of some external memory locations for direct addressing.

The 80296SA is available in 100L QFP which is pin compatible with the 8XC196NU/NP for ease of upgradability. For existing 8XC196NU/NP users, the 80296SA provides an easy performance upgrade which translates to faster time to market. For customers who are looking for 16 bit microcontroller with an extra boost to performance, the 80296SA provides the performance edge required at an affordable price.

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