The new MAX32670 low-power Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller (MCU) with floating-point unit from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. This device protects all embedded memory for both flash and SRAM with error-code correction (ECC) in order to provide the highest reliability MCU.

In many industrial and IoT applications, high energy particles and other environmental challenges present the danger of bombarding memory and creating bit flips during the normal course of operations – especially as process nodes drop to 40nm and lower. This can disrupt MCU operation and produce incorrect or even dangerous results. To prevent catastrophic ramifications like these, the MAX32670 protects its entire memory footprint (384kB flash and 128kB SRAM) with ECC to prevent bit flips and enhance reliability. With ECC, single-bit errors are detected and corrected by hardware, making it difficult for bit flip errors to have a negative impact on the application.

With just 40µW/MHz of active power consumption, the MAX32670 executes commands from flash at 40 percent lower power than the closest competitive industrial solution. It is the lowest power solution for battery-operated sensor applications. MAX32670 is also 50 percent smaller than the closest competitor, giving developers the opportunity to reduce solution size and material costs.

The MAX32670 is available at Maxim Integrated’s website for $1.44 (1000-up, FOB USA); also available from authorized distributors. The MAX32670EVKIT# evaluation kit is available for $25