Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has begun mass production of its TXZ+ Family Entry-Class M4L Group, a new series of compact motor-control microcontrollers built on an Arm® Cortex®-M4 core with a floating-point unit (FPU) for next-generation home appliances, consumer devices and industrial equipment.
Designed specifically for single-motor control, the new TXZ+ Family Entry-Class M4L Group integrate dedicated moto-control hardware, security features and functional safety measures on a single chip, offloading key control tasks from the CPU to improve efficiency and precision.
By shifting motor-control processing to hardware, the microcontrollers help reduce CPU load while supporting high-accuracy control and more robust system operation in energy-efficient, compact and connected products.
The M4L Group microcontrollers operate at up to 80MHz and support a wide supply voltage range from 2.7V to 5.5V, making them suitable for both existing 3V and 5V system designs as well as new platforms that require greater flexibility.
They are offered in four small package types with 44 to 64 pins and two memory configurations, giving designers options tailored to different application requirements. A built-in high-speed oscillator with ±1% accuracy and an overcurrent detection comparator for emergency motor shutdown help cut the need for external components and shrink board footprints, while a low-power STOP2 mode supports battery-powered use cases.
In terms of memory architecture, the 256KB devices feature dual-bank flash with two 128KB blocks, enabling one program to run while the other bank is being updated, which is well suited for firmware over-the-air (FOTA) and other field-update scenarios.
The 128KB products include 64KB of data flash for storing logs and configuration information, helping equipment vendors improve maintainability and lifecycle management. To address growing IoT security needs, the microcontrollers incorporate chip protection (CPRO), secure access memory (SAM) and non-rewritable flash protection (NRFP) to block unauthorized access, enforce controlled memory use and safeguard critical code and data.
Connectivity and safety are also central to the platform, the devices integrate UART, SPI, I²C and a serial memory interface (SMIF) for external memory, along with safety functions that monitor flash, RAM, ADCs and clock systems for abnormal behavior.
Toshiba further supports compliance with household appliance safety requirements by providing certified software aligned with UL 60730 Class B, helping manufacturers streamline certification. Documentation, sample code and peripheral driver software are available, and Toshiba plans to release evaluation boards and development environments in collaboration with Arm® ecosystem partners to support customers from initial evaluation through ramp to mass production.
Toshiba intends to continue broadening its range of motor-control-optimized microcontrollers and expanding development support, aiming to accelerate product development for appliance, consumer and industrial OEMs.
Applications
- Next-generation home appliances and consumer equipment, including smart appliances and devices with IoT functionality
- Industrial equipment and factory automation systems
- Office and commercial equipment
Features
- Arm® Cortex®?M4 core with FPU: operating 80MHz (max)
- Dedicated motor-control hardware
- Security functions
- Firmware updates during operation (256KB code flash products only, dual?bank flash)
- Self-diagnosis functions for functional safety
- Supply voltage range: 2.7V to 5.5V
- Internal memory
Code flash memory: 128 KB, 256 KB
Data flash memory: 64KB (128KB code flash products only)
RAM: 32 KB
VE RAM: 4KB - Four types of small package with 44 to 64 pins (LQFP/VQFN)
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