By Bernard Cole

Embedded.com

(06/01/05, 16:03:00 PM EDT)

STMicroelectronics has just taken the wraps off a bi-core controller IC for USB Flash drives combining a traditional MCU with a one cycle per instruction Input/Output processor and a Reed-Solomon encoder/decoder engine.

The ST72681 USB 2.0 Flash Drive Controller uses an advanced architecture that tightly couples an ST7 8-bit MCU core with a fast, 16-bit, one-cycle-per-instruction Input/Output processor dedicated to the interface on USB 2.0 Flash drives and a Reed-Solomon 4-byte-on-512-byte block encoder/decoder engine for error correction of the MLC (Multi-Level Cell) NAND Flash devices.

Both the 8-bit MCU and the 16-bit Input/Output processor run at 30MHz, allowing the design of Flash drives with high Read (more than 12-MB/s) and Write (over 10-MB/s) performance.

According to Xavier Mariaud, STMicroelectronics` Product Manager for USB2.0 microcontrollers, read performance will reach more than 20 Mbyte/s and Write performance will exceed 16 Mbyte/s with the next version of the ST72681 family controller, which will be available in the next few months.

He said the new bi-core controller has been certified by USB-IF (USB Implementers Forum) as having the industry`s lowest power consumption `` just 290 microamps in suspend mode and 50 mA operating supply current.

The new MCU is also is supported by a comprehensive set of tools for production including Vendor ID, Product ID, and serial-number customization, as well as LED setting, formatting, boot capability, and public/private zone partitioning.

The ST72681 USB 2.0 Flash Drive Controller is available in a small footprint TQFP48 package and in die form. Pricing starts at $1.60 in quantities of 10,000.