StrongARM Products SA-1100 Microprocessor Information Sheet

A StrongARM™ microprocessor, the SA-1100 features a highly integrated single-chip design. The SA-1100 microprocessor delivers a combination of high performance and low power that can be useful for emerging portable applications.

Manufacturers need processors that deliver increased performance while meeting the rigid power consumption and footprint requirements of battery-powered devices. To be competitive, OEMs also need the flexibility to choose a software platform that makes good business sense for their applications.

Advanced, cost-efficient design

The SA-1100 is a 32-bit RISC microprocessor, based on the sophisticated SA-1 core and integrates large on-chip caches, a memory controller, flexible display controller and many types of serial channels. It features fast clock speeds with low power consumption. Click here for information on clock speeds and order numbers. The SA-1100 microprocessor offers high performance for demanding applications, such as voice recognition and soft-modems, without sacrificing battery life.

Performance that keeps on delivering

The SA-1100 achieves its performance through high clock speeds, and large on-chip caches, including a 16KB instruction cache (Icache), an 8KB write-back data cache (Dcache) and a minicache that provides additional flexibility for controlling data movement through the SA-1100. Integrated buffers, a DSP multiply unit, a memory interface and other features further enhance overall system performance.

The SA-1100’s performance advantage allows portable devices to provide fast response, accurate user interfaces and fast Java interpretation. The SA-1100 can emulate a v.34+ modem in software. Applications utilizing the SA-1100 can take advantage of technologies, such as speech recognition, text-to-speech and soft-modem, with impressive user-interface performance. With this improved user interface, consumers and mobile professionals can work and communicate more productively through speech, handwriting, or keyboard input. The high performance offered by the SA-1100 is also attractive for multimedia and graphics demanded by digital/analog I/O devices.

Other SA-1100 performance-focused features, including support for 4-Mbit-per-second IrDA and a USB slave, provide cutting-edge interfaces for fast desktop synchronization.

Low power consumption can extend battery life

Low operational power consumption and multiple power-down modes enable the SA-1100 to deliver leadership performance while prolonging battery life. The processor’s power-down modes, idle and sleep, conserve power when user tasks are not activating the system. In idle mode, clocks to the CPU are static while clocks to the peripheral functions are active. In sleep mode, all functions are disabled except a small amount of system logic, including the realtime clock. This feature allows an external or internal interrupt to bring the device out of sleep.

High integration for design flexibility, reduced cost

The integrated features offered by the SA-1100 support diverse and demanding functions. The memory controller, which offers one- or two-slot support, provides design flexibility through configuration of DRAM, SRAM Flash or ROM memories. The flexible display controller provides high-quality image display, supporting a maximum of 1024 x 1024 resolution. The six serial and general purpose I/O interfaces provide system integration and communication with the external world. The SA-1100 also incorporates an LCD controller plus all required timer and system functions. The SA-1100 offers all of these features in a single-chip design that supports inexpensive packaging.

Rich software environment speeds time-to market

Complementing the SA-1100’s advanced capabilities is a powerful and comprehensive software environment. In addition to a large library of ARM™*-compatible applications and tools, developers of SA-1100-based products have access to a rich set of operating systems and tool chains that support StrongARM microprocessors. These resources provide manufacturers with the widest range of applications, operating systems and tool chains available for any embedded processor.

Developers can use these resources, which include realtime and interactive development systems, to build libraries of new feature-rich applications for StrongARM-based products, quickly. Ultimately, this comprehensive suite of software gives manufacturers a time-to-market advantage in delivering high-performance products that can satisfy emerging market needs.

Design and development tools

Manufacturers can use the SA-1100 hardware developer’s kit and evaluation platform as a hardware reference design and as a tool for developing and testing software. The evaluation platform provides a wide variety of design and development features, including the SA-1100 processor, on-board memory, LCD touch screen, keyboard, telecom/audio/microphone/speaker, PCMCIA connector, serial I/O and logic analyzer connectors. Designers can easily extract portions of the board and accompanying SA-1100 schematics to expedite product design.

SA-1100 Microprocessor Characteristics

Clock	160 MHz	220 MHz
Performance	180 Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS	250 Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS
Core Power Supply	Vss = 0.0 V dc Vdd = 2.0 V dc = 5%	Vss = 0.0 V dc Vdd = 2.0 V dc = 5%
I/O Power Supply	Vssx = 0.0 V dc Vddx = 3.3 V dc = 10%	Vss = 0.0 V dc Vdd = 3.3 V dc = 10%
Typical Power Dissipation	<430 mW	<550 mW
Ambient operating temperature	Standard = 0ºC (320&186;F) min 70ºC (158&186;F) max Extended = -20ºC (-4&186;F) min 70ºC (158&186;F) max	Standard = 0ºC (320&186;F) min 70ºC (158&186;F) max Extended = -20ºC (-4&186;F) min 70ºC (158&186;F) max
Storage temperature	-40ºC to + 125&186;C (-40ºF to + 257&186;F)	-40ºC to + 125&186;C (-40ºF to + 257&186;F)
Packaging	208-pin LQFP 256 mBGA	208-pin LQFP 256 mBGA
Process technology	.35 um, 3-layer metal	.35 um, 3-layer metal
Transistor Count	2.5 million	2.5 million
Order number	DE-S1100-CA (LQFP) DE-S1100-CB (mBGA)	DE-S1100-DA (LQFP) DE-S1100-DB (mBGA)

Ordering Information

To Order Now:

• For U.S./Canada, contact your local Distributor
• Outside U.S./Canada, contact your local Distributor
  

For Additional Information:

• Online Documentation for the SA1100