National's Embedded Controller Reduces Power Drain in Notebook PCs

Lower prices are something that generally come around when consumers adopt products in droves. While that's one of the main benefits National sites for this controller, to me the big deal is that it reduces power consumption. If your laptop processor uses less power (like with SpeedStep ), your graphics card uses less power (like with PowerMizer or POWERPLAY ), and other components like your keyboard use less power, as with this chip, you should be on your way to some serious battery life, especially if all the makers of components within your mobile unit heed the call. Last week, National Semiconductor introduced a new embedded low pin count controller that it says could provide power and cost savings for PC notebook manufacturers. The PC87591 combines National's 16-bit CompactRISC processor with custom and conventional peripherals to provide battery savings and security functions. According to National, the PC87591 could save customers more than $5 per system by integrating traditional keyboard components into a complete system design. That's not exactly "slashing" prices, but every little bit helps. The PC87591 features typical keyboard controller functions like internal keyboard matrix scan and decode, as well as acting as an interface between the external keyboard and mouse. In addition, the controller can secure the PC by using an on-chip random number generator to implement password protection, BIOS integrity checking, and memory protection. More importantly for mobile computers, the PC87591 has an idle current of less than 15 uA, while fully active current consumption is 20 mA @ 4MHz and 30 mA @ 20 Mhz. Along with the 16-bit RISC processor, the controller has a 2MB address space. National says that that's a big deal because the chip can take care of normal keyboard and mouse functions, implement power-savings, and still have the firepower to take over additional functions like controlling the CD drive in the notebook to let you listen to music when the notebook PC is powered down (my Bob, that's an awfully big CD player you're carrying around). The PC87591 is available now in both 128-pin and 176-pin LQFP packages. In 1,000 unit quantities, the PC87591S with 128K Flash, 4K RAM, and RNG costs U.S.$15.00, while the PC87591E with 64K Flash, 2K RAM, and without the security function costs U.S.$13.80. A chip scale package option will be available Q4. If you need the whole score on this controller, datasheets are posted on National's website .