MSP432 timers big (as in huge) limitation for ULP designs

Hi Pibe,

thank you for your encouraging feedback on the new MSP432 MCU! It was definitely not an easy task to add in more performance and complexity while striving to maintain the low-power features well-known to MSP users.

- You have already uncovered some of the changes from MSP430 related to the power management and clock system, as the added flexibility (tunable DCO, DC-DC, low-frequency & various other new power modes, etc.) requires additional configuration settings. Fortunately most of these complexity can be handled by the DriverLib APIs provided in ROM. Even for MSP430 expert users, we'd still recommend trying out the robust and aggressively tested DriverLib APIs when it comes to configuring the clock and power modules. On the other hand, you will benefit the most out of reusing the MSP430 peripherals (i.e. TimerA, eUSCI, RTC, etc.) in your code porting effort.

- Now to the main question related to LPM3 wake-up sources on MSP432P401x, you do in fact have two timers available in LPM3: RTC & WDT. Both can be configured to periodically wake up (RTC can have dual function: calendar mode + interval wake-ups) allowing you to have up to 4 wake up intervals simultaneous (WDT interval down to 1.95ms, RTC update every second, RTC pre-scalers 0 & 1 with wake-up granularity up to 16kHz). Let us know if these timer options can meet your wake-up timer requirements. Would be great to get your feedback on this feature as well!
[Quick note: on the existing MSP432 LaunchPads that you are currently evaluating, the RTC PS0 is not available, but this feature has been added to the final production silicon available in 1H2016.]

- As you can see, our priority for the first devices in the MSP432 family is to maintain the ULP performance while adding more processing capabilities. We decided to keep the LPM3 power domain available to only the most essential peripherals to absolutely minimize the LPM3 number (~ 0.8uA as you have discovered). As more peripherals & functionalities will be added to the next devices in the MSP432 family, several more essential peripherals (TimerA, eUSCI, etc.) will be added to additional power domains that will only turn on when needed. This will give developers the flexibility to operate or wake up from LPM3/4 while still minimizing the overall LPM3 power budget. Let me know how this sounds to you.

Thanks!

~Dung

Hi Dung,

Is there any roadmap available for the MSP432 family? I mean, It's been almost a year now and the documentation still has blanks in some key parameter specifications. Also, we bought 9 samples (the maximum one can get) a month ago and are still waiting for those to arrive. Furthermore, I am waiting for a response to another post where I reported some unexpected behaviour in relation to the RTC.

While at this time it is OK for me to spend some time exploring the MSP432 capabilities and its differences with the MSP430, it is a growing concern not to have a clear picture about when this chip will be available at all.

Regards,
Pibe

Pibe:

We are targeting 2Q16 for production of the MSP432P401

Do you have a TI sales person or disty calling on you ?. We will be happy to provide an update but can do so only under NDA. Please have your sales person contact MSP marketing team.

Thanks,

Pradhyum

OK. Thank you.

I still do not understand how is it that TI decided to leave all the regular timers outside the BCLK domain. A gross misstep IMO, I mean the differentiator on this new M4 embodiment is the MSP platform.  How is it that you guys did not take advantage of it? Suggesting to use the WDT instead of one of the six regular timers available makes the whole thing look even worse.

Regards,
Pibe