MCUs provide up to 54 I/O pins

The range offers a touch-sensing feature that the company claims is robust, accurate, responsive and easy to configure.

With up to 54 general-purpose I/O pins and a 25 MIPS 8051 CPU, the C8051F7xx range is designed to bring a high level of processing power and flexibility to applications such as industrial controls, security systems, residential HVAC, home appliances, keyboards, cash machines and fax/printer/scanner front panels.

The touch-sensitive on-chip peripheral uses a capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) with a 40us acquisition time, which when combined with the 25 MIPS CPU on the C8051F7xx enables sophisticated human interface functions, even when large arrays of touch-sensing elements are used.

To combat issues in electrically noisy environments, the CDC offers high noise immunity.

With up to 32 touch-sensing inputs, the MCU can be placed in a power-saving mode and wake quickly upon touch.

An API library is included for all common touch-sense configurations such as virtual buttons, wheels and sliders.

The C8051F7xx range also has a number of analogue features.

A 10 bit successive approximation (SAR) analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) with on-chip voltage reference and temperature sensor provides analogue capability for measurement and control.

Up to 54 I/Os are offered to be used as ADC voltage measurement inputs, capacitive touch-sense inputs and/or digital communications I/Os.

A calibrated two per cent oscillator with accuracy over the full MCU voltage supply and temperature range eliminates the need for an external crystal.

In addition, the C8051F7xx range offers byte-erasable EEPROM with 100,000 write/erase cycle endurance guaranteed for storage of frequently updated data.

A Silicon Labs GUI is provided for easy and intuitive setup of the capacitive touch-sense peripheral to get the desired configuration and performance in minutes.

A separate capacitive touch-sense evaluation kit provides evaluation of the capacitive sensing solution.