TI MSP430

[3] The MSP430FR series, which use FRAM instead of a flash, also allow fast writing to a non-volatile memory without additional power requirements.

The device comes in a variety of generations featuring the usual peripherals: Some less usual peripheral options include on-chip operational amplifiers (op-amp) for signal conditioning, 12-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC), liquid crystal display (LCD) driver, hardware multiplier, USB, and direct memory access (DMA) for ADC results.

Apart from some older erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM, such as MSP430E3xx) and high volume mask ROM (MSP430Cxxx) versions, all of the devices are in-system programming enabled via Joint Test Action Group (JTAG), full four-wire or Spy-Bi-Wire), a built in bootstrapping loader (BSL) using UART such as RS-232, or USB on devices with USB support.

These flash- or ROM-based ultra-low-power MCUs offer 8 MIPS, 1.8–3.6 V operation, up to 60 KB flash, and a wide range of analog and digital peripherals.

It includes the very-low power oscillator (VLO), internal pull-up/pull-down resistors, and low-pin count options.

It includes the Very-Low power Oscillator (VLO), internal pull-up/pull-down resistors, and low-pin count options at lower prices than the MSP430F2xx series.

[9] This generation does not support EEPROM memory, only mask ROM and UV-eraseable and one-time programmable EPROM.

Fixed Function: The MSP430BQ1010 16-bit microcontroller is an advanced fixed-function device that forms the control and communications unit on the receiver side for wireless power transfer in portable applications.

Extended Temp: MSP430 devices are very popular in harsh environments such as industrial sensing for their low power consumption and innovative analog integration.

Some harsh environment applications include transportation/automotive, renewable energy, military/space/avionics, mineral exploration, industrial, and safety & security.

Note that when the flash size is over 64K words (128 KBytes), instruction addresses can no longer be encoded in just two bytes.

The MSP430 peripherals are generally easy to use, with (mostly) consistent addresses between models, and no write-only registers (except for the hardware multiplier).

TI also provides software development tools, both directly, and in conjunction with partners (see the full list of compilers, assemblers, and IDEs).

TI also combines a version of its own compiler and tools with its Eclipse-based Code Composer Studio IDE (CCS).

CCS supports in-circuit emulators, and includes a simulator and other tools; it can also work with other processors sold by TI.

Other commercial development tool sets, which include editor, compiler, linker, assembler, debugger and in some cases code wizards, are available.

[13] VisSim generated code for a closed loop ADC+PWM based PID control on the F2013 compiles to less than 1 KB flash and 100 bytes RAM.

The MSP430F2013 and its siblings are set apart by the fact that (except for the MSP430G2 Value Line) it is the only MSP430 part that is available in a dual in-line package (DIP).

TI has gone to some trouble to support the eZ430 development platform by making the raw chips easy for hobbyists to use in prototypes.

TI has tackled the low-budget problem by offering a very small experimenter board, the eZ430-F2013, on a USB stick (now obsolete).

It is also welcomed[citation needed] by engineers in large companies prototyping projects with capital budget problems.

The FRAM LaunchPads (e.g. MSP-EXP430FR5969, MSP-EXP430FR4133) include EnergyTrace, a feature supported by TI's Code Composer Studio IDE for monitoring and analyzing power consumption.

The JTAG interface on the lower pin count MSP430 parts is multiplexed with general purpose I/O lines.

This makes it relatively difficult to debug circuits built around the small, low-I/O-budget chips, since the full 4-pin JTAG hardware will conflict with anything else connected to those I/O lines.

JTAG debugging and flash programming tools based on OpenOCD and widely used in the ARM architecture community are not available for the MSP430.

However, should it be discovered mid-project that more MIPS, more memory, and more I/O peripherals are needed, those tools will not transfer to a processor from another vendor.

Added address mode encodings using R3 and R2 allow a total of six commonly used constant values (0, 1, 2, 4, 8 and −1) without needing an immediate operand word.

When handling an interrupt, the processor saves the status register on the stack and clears the low-power bits.

In order to support this, an extended form of the MSP430 uses 20-bit registers and a 20-bit address space, allowing up to 1 MB of memory.

This includes a "ZC" flag which suppresses carry-in (useful for instructions like DADD which always use the carry bit), and a repeat count.