AUSTIN, Texas, 23 Aug. 2005. Silicon Laude in Austin, Texas, is offering radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant MCS8051 instruction-compatible microcontrollers that interface with Honeywell's HXNV-0100 64k by 16 radiation-hardened magnetic RAM (MRAM).

The combination creates a microcontroller that operates in 300 kilorads total ionizing-dose radiation. Dubbed the SL80RT051-AX001 for the radiation-tolerant version, and SL80RH051-AF001 for the radiation-hardened version, the microcontrollers are implemented in Actel space-qualified RTAX-S and Aeroflex radiation-hardened UT6325 field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), respectively).

Engineered for space, the microcontrollers offer 256 bytes of triple module redundancy (TMR) internal data RAM, 1,536 bytes of on-chip, TMR extended data (XDATA) RAM, memory soft-error detection and correction capability, quad pulse-width modulator (PWM) modules that can operate in stochastic DAC output mode, and Silicon Laude's proprietary Hardware Monitor and Data eXchange (HMDXTM) technology for real-time monitoring and debugging via an IEEE 1149.1 compatible test port.

For compatibility with Honeywell's synchronous, 16-bit MRAM, as well as traditional asynchronous, 8-bit EEPROMs and SRAMs, the basic 8051 model was re-architected to include a 16-bit, synchronous/asynchronous external interface, selectable with an external mode pin.

SL80RX051 applications include general instrumentation and control, launch vehicle vibration monitoring, tunable diode laser (TDL) spectrometers, and general data acquisition.

Non-radiation tested emulator versions of the SL80RX051 are available for evaluation, prototyping, and software development. For more information contact the company online at www.siliconlaude.com.