Exar launches UARTs with integrated level shifters

A pair of new UARTs with integrated level shifters from Exar Corp. has a maximum data rate of 24 Mbps, making them what the company says are the industry’s fastest UARTs with 8-bit/VLIO and I²C/SPI interfaces. 

The main difference between the two devices—the XR16M890 and XR20M1280—is the CPU bus interface.  The XR16M890 has a selectable 8-bit Intel, Motorola or VLIO bus interface.  The XR20M1280 has a selectable I2C/SPI bus interface.  The maximum clock frequency on the SPI interface is 26 MHz.

The XR16M890 and XR20M1280 are targeted at portable applications including smart phones, Bluetooth, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), GPS systems, and other battery operated devices.

Common feature set:  

• Auto RTS/CTS hardware flow control
• Auto XON/XOFF software flow control
• TX/RX FIFO counters
• Selectable or programmable transmit and receive FIFO trigger levels
• Fractional and independent TX/RX baud rate generators
• Auto RS-485 half-duplex direction control
• Multidrop mode with address detect
• 128-Byte TX/RX FIFOs
• Infrared mode
• Sleep and PowerSave modes
• Up to 16 GPIO pins

Pricing: In 1k quantities per device the XR16M890 and the XR20M1280 are priced from a range of $1.85-$1.90. 

Availability: Samples will be available within 30 days.