Read our full coverage of the latest news from Embedded World 2008

Amid hundreds of new microcontrollers launched this week at Embedded World, two UK companies took a new spin on their devices - Cyan and its eCOG controller, and FTDI and its Vinculum chip.

Cambridge-based 16bit controller maker Cyan has launched a low cost version of its eCOG controller, stripping out the Ethernet and USB controller to fit it into a smaller, cheaper package and bringing the cost down to around $3. It is also planning a new version of this with a smaller die that is more cost optimised later in the year.

FTDI of Glasgow has added a 32 digital code to its current Vinculum chip that can be embedded in a USB plug to act as a security dongle as part of the cable. FTDI is providing free key management and encryption software to work with the chip, which has a bill of materials in the cable of $4 to $6, says Daniel McCaffrey, sales manager.

The company is also close to taping out its Vinculum2 USB controller for higher speed USB2, which runs up to 480Mbit/s.

Alongside 50 new controller variants for the automotive market, Renesas continues to push the 16bit H8S core, adding USB and Ethernet for the first time. "Communications is more and more important and we are finding that customer are requesting we stay with 16bit and do not want to convert to another architecture just to replace an RS232 or other serial protocol," said the company.

Toshiba also launched its first ARM microcontroller, based on the ARM9 core and adding USB and a QCIF resolution LCD controller and graphics accelerator for embedded applications such as fridges, washing machines and heating controllers. The part doesn't have Ethernet as the majority of these will not be Internet connected for some time, says Roland Gehrman, marketing manager for consumer and industrial ICs at Toshiba.

Renesas is moving its SH4 multimedia core from mobile to industrial applications. The 7722R strips out the baseband processor and only runs Linux at the moment as there is no floating point unit. A version with FPU, the 7723 later this year, will support WindowsCE.

It is sampling a 90nm version for automotive applications and there is already a test chip with four cores, according to Bernd Westhoff, marketing engineer for microcontroller products.

A 65nm version is due in October for automotive and a 65nm part for industrial designs will follow in the first quarter next year.

See also: Electronics Weekly's focus on microprocessors, a roundup of content on microprocessor technologies and developments not related to the x86 architecture (from ARM, Texas Instruments and MIPS).