ARM Community: Hey Hobbyists, dust off your breadboards - DIP package is back! - ARM Community

Really, it is a blast from the past. Soon you can get ARM Cortex-M0 microcontrollers in a DIP28 package, along with SOP20, TSSOP20 and TSSOP28 packages. Recently NXP announced the new additions of the LPC1100 microcontroller family, which will have these packages available. The new announcement further extended the applications of the ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers range from low cost devices to high-ended dual core microcontroller LPC4300 (ARM Cortex-M4 + Cortex-M0) which can run at 180MHz.


This is excellent news for hobbyists and students. With the DIP chip package, now they can use their breadboards to prototype a Cortex-M0 system easily. No need to spend time on a PCB design. Beside from breadboard, you can of course use prototyping boards (available in most electronics stores), which you can solder your PCB design at home, or even use the wire wrap method, which doesn’t need any soldering at all.

With Serial-Wire Debug connection, you only need two pins for debugger connections. Well… obviously you need the power supply connection as well. The LPC1100L only need a single power source (typical 3.3 Volt, supports 1.8 to 3.6 Volt). There is a 12MHz Internal RC oscillator and the chip internal clock runs up to 50MHz. Since you only need to connect a few pins, it is very easy to get the design working. What can go wrong with such simple prototyping target? (Kids, I have got high expectations of YOU!)

The new devices are great for professional engineers as well. Got a wacky new product idea? Just pick a DIP package Cortex-M0 microcontroller, prototype the design on breadboard or prototyping PCB, and start developing the software straight away. The TSSOP packages also allow low cost production methods to be used, and with a price tag of just USD $0.49, they reduce the product cost.

Although the cost of the device is low, it has quite comprehensive peripheral set. Beside from standard general purpose I/O pins, you can also find 4 timers with PWM, a 10 bit 5-channel ADC, UART, SPI/SSP and I2C interface. With a power consumption of just 130uA/MHz and various low power modes available, it is ideal for low cost battery powered devices.

If you are developing a PCB, don’t forget to follow the standard debug connector arrangement to make it easier to connect the board to standard debug adaptors.

Have fun using the Cortex-M0!

Joseph Yiu is a technical specialist within ARM. Over the ten years he has worked at ARM Joseph has worked on a number of processor design projects including the ARM Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M0 processors, as well as development of a wide range of products in the ARM IP (Intellectual Property) portfolio including the AMBA Design Kits, PrimeCells^TM and CoreSight^TM components. Joseph is specialized in microcontroller system level design and has extensive knowledge in related areas including software development for the ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers, embedded applications, FPGA development and System-on-Chip design technologies.