Now this module will examine the details of the first family of devices with FRAM. It is the same basic MSP430 CPU, but it can run at either a 8 MHz or 24 MHz system clock depending on device configuration. This is because FRAM runs at 8 MHz, but included in the device are some caching and on board SRAM to enable 24MHz performance with wait states. These initial devices have extremely low active power consumption with a typical 100µA/MHz and the capability to run even lower, near 80µA/MHz with more efficient coding. There are also low power standby and shutdown modes (2 of the 7 low power modes) that operate near conventional MSP430 devices at 1.5 µA and 300 nA respectively. Future FRAM devices will feature vast improvements on these numbers as well. Although these first devices are limited to a maximum of 16 kilobytes of memory, they also pack quite a variety of useful analog and digital peripherals. These include: a 10-bit analog to digital converter, a low power analog comparator with the ability to generate an external voltage reference, up to three serial interfaces depending on which protocol is used, 5 general purpose 16-bit timers, a real time clock with calendar and alarm function, a 32-bit multiplier, direct memory access for low power peripheral operation, and up to 33 IO pins that are all capable of generating an interrupt. The MSP430 FR57xx devices come in packages from a 4x4 mm 24 pin or 7x7 mm 40 pin QFN or a 28 or 38 pin TSSOP. All devices are fully qualified from -40 to 85°C. All devices also include a small amount of RAM for ease of porting applications, storing highly used variables, and containing the 2 way 4 word cache. This will be discussed further in a bit.

