MCX Unifies NXP Microcontrollers

NXP is unifying its microcontroller offering with the new MCX family. Although this doesn’t indicate the end of the older families, it will be the focus for new designs that need modern features.

Bryon Moyer

NXP is refocusing its microcontroller (MCU) lineup by introducing the new MCX family of MCUs. Organized into four segments with different emphases, the family ranges from low cost or low power to high performance. The announcement simply introduces the new family; specific devices are scheduled to be unveiled later this year, targeting 2H23 production.

MCX is the future of NXP’s MCU lineup, garnering most of the company’s future development resources. Its arrival, however, doesn’t indicate the demise of the prior Kinetis and LPC lines; those brands will remain available, and NXP may make selective improvements and upgrades to both the chips and the development tools.

Microcontrollers are often the “brains” for Internet of Things (IoT) and other connected devices; MCX includes features that address the evolving needs of such systems. Particularly important are security and AI, which are also drifting down into the MCU space. Although not all designs require those features, a uniform family permits customers to add them as designs scale. All the new devices will employ Arm Cortex-M cores.

The family implements a 32-bit architecture built initially in 40nm technology. It will have flash memory, but the company is evaluating RRAM and MRAM as potential replacements for process nodes that lack flash.