Although there are variants in devices in the family, an MSP430 microcontroller can be characterized by:

  • Low power consumption:
  • A  for RAM data retention;
  • 0.8 A for real-time clock mode operation;
  • 250 A/MIPS is an active operation.

Low operation voltage (from 1.8 V to 3.6 V).

  • < 1 s clock start-up.
  • < 50 nA port leakage.
  • Zero-power Brown-Out Reset (BOR).

On-chip analog devices:

  • 10/12/16-bit Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC);
  • 12-bit dual Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC);
  • Comparator-gated timers;
  • Operational Amplifiers (OP Amps);
  • Supply Voltage Supervisor (SVS).

16-bit RISC CPU:

  • Instructions processing on either bit, bytes or words;
  • Compact core design reduces power consumption and cost;
  • Compiler efficient;
  • 27 core instructions;
  • 7 addressing modes;
  • Extensive vectored-interrupt capability.

Flexibility:

  • Up to 256 kB In-System Programmable (ISP) Flash;
  • Up to 100 pin options;
  • USART, I2C, Timers;
  • LCD driver; Embedded emulation.