Melfas, a touch sensor firm, has chosen the ARM Cortex-M0
processor and ARM physical IP libraries for capacitive touch screen
controller ICs.
ARM's Cortex-M0 processor - how it
works
Melfas traditionally has used 8051-based controllers and it said it
has made the change to achieve improved energy efficiency and lower
cost.
“The ultra low power and gate count of the Cortex-M0 processor,
combined with its 32-bit performance efficiency, makes it an ideal
choice for mobile touch screen applications supporting increasing
panel sizes,” said B.W. Lee, CEO, Melfas.
The company said it was able to evaluate the new processor using
its existing 8051 code base.
"The results demonstrated that we could halve the flash memory
requirement using the Cortex-M0 processor, and reduce the MHz
requirement by 5x, saving power," said D.J. Min, v-p of
engineering at Melfas.
The change was helped by the fact that ARM's Keil software
development tools support both 8051 and ARM Cortex-M0
processor-based devices.
Melfas will incorporate foundry sponsored physical IP consisting
of embedded memories and logic libraries.
According to market research firm, DisplaySearch, the total touch
screen module market will grow from $3.6 billion in 2008 to $9bn by
2015, with a CAGR of 14%.
ARM libraries
are available.