Palmchip, a major player in system-on-chip platforms and IP cores for mobile devices, embedded software and software applications, has introduced the PALM80251 microcontroller for the smart grid home area network markets.

To provide performance improvements over the MCS-251 family, the architecture of PALM80251 has been enhanced.

The PALM80251 microcontroller is energy and cost-efficient and is based on a customized version of the Intel (News - Alert) 80251 processor core together with silicon-proven peripherals targeting HAN appliances.

The newly announced PALM80251 can be used to implement a HAN coordinator and gateway device to communicate between the numerous devices, running inside a home or office building.

The Internet gateway enables remote energy management, where home or business appliances could be controlled from smart phones or PC to save energy.

The 80251 core executes the instruction in a single clock cycle, and is an instruction set compatible implementation of the MCS-251 family. It's about 3.19 times faster on average then the MCS-251 family.

"Palmchip is committed to enabling low-cost consumer devices that address global energy consumption," said Palmchip CEO Jauher Zaidi, in a press release.

"Consumer products are very price sensitive. By incorporating a 16-bit processor with low power and small area attributes into their designs, HAN manufacturers can deliver more competitive and cost-effective products."

The PALM80251 has a total addressable memory of 16Mbytes of which 16Kbytes is implemented as on-chip program memory, 1KBytes of on-chip data RAM (News - Alert), and the rest as external memory which can be used as RAM or ROM.

In related news, Palmchip has launched its PalmCloud services for Salesforce.com’s (News - Alert) customer relationship management, or “CRM,” system by providing design, integration and customization services using the Force.com platform.