A new 8-bit microcontroller called the STM8L050 was announced today by STMicroelectronics. This low cost, low-power 8-pin MCU comes with the STM8 core running at 16MHz. The controller has six I/Os with rich Analog peripherals, a DMA controller and a separate EEPROM making it suitable for industrial sensors, toys, access cards, e-bike controllers, home-automation or lighting products, smart printer cartridges, or battery chargers.
The integrated DMA (Direct Memory Access) controller speeds application performance by streamlining data transfers between peripherals and memory, or from memory to memory, ultimately saving power consumption. The 256 bytes of separated EEPROM allows applications to store important program data when the MCU is powered down, while allowing maximum utilization of Flash for code storage.
Alongside two comparators, the STM8L050 has a 4-channel 12-bit analog-digital converter (ADC) and a low-power real-time clock (RTC) with programmable alarm and periodic wakeups, allowing designers to minimize external analog components. In addition, support for either an external or internal clock at up to 16MHz further enhances flexibility to balance performance with bill-of-materials (BOM) savings.
Other features include 8Kbytes of on-chip Flash memory, 1Kbyte of RAM, two 16-bit timers, one 8-bit timer, and popular connectivity and debug interfaces including SPI, I2C, UART, and SWIM. It also provides power-saving modes that cut current to as little as 350nA, and operates over a wide voltage range from 3.6V down to 1.8V. The MCUs are fully specified from -40°C to 125°C, ensuring robustness and reliability in demanding applications such as industrial controls or lighting products.
