At 11:28 AM 6/19/2006 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>Been searching for a 8 bit or 16 bit microcontroller
>with the lowest power consumption possible. Any
>recommendation? I am looking for those with at least
>10 GPIO. My intention is to power the uC using a
>3000mAh battery for maybe 5 years...? Is this
>possible? The uController may be in normal mode at
>most 4 hours a day and the remaining in sleep mode...

It depends on the clock speed. At 32kHz for your several
hours per day there are probably solutions. At 4MHz, probably
not.

Look at the MSP430 series as well as the nanowatt series PICs.
TI has generally done a better job than Microchip in designing
peripherals such as BOR which will consume very little current.
Their port leakage spec is also *much* better than Microchip's
(50nA vs. 1uA). Obviously that current has to come fromm the
power supply, and is multiplied by the number of I/O.

The very lowest power consumption is probably from some mask
programmed single cell 4-bit controllers designed for watches and such
like, but they are not practical for low-volume applications.

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com
->>Test equipment, parts OLED displys http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZspeff


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