Milandr K1986VE91T – 80MHz ARM Cortex-M3

In the early 1990’s a Milandr was formed in Zelenograd, Russia (just a short distance to the NW of Moscow), the silicon valley of Russia, home to the Angstrem, and Micron IC design houses. They are a fabless company, though with their own packaging/test facilities, specializing in high reliability metal/ceramic packages. Most of their products are fab’d in Germany, by X-Fab.  X-Fab was formed in part, from the remains of the Soviet/E. German era VEB Mikroelektronik Karl Marx, in Erfurt Germany, also known as FWE/MME and later Thesys.  In Soviet times it wasn’t uncommon for Soviet companies to use dies produced by FWE in their own packages, so this bit of legacy continues today.

The K1986VE91T is one of Milandr’s top end products, it is an 80MHz ARM Cortex-M3 based processor, and likely one of the largest, if not the largest, Cortex-M3 made.  It is made on a 180nm process and includes 32K RAM, 128K FlashROM, 96 USER I/O, USB, 2 UART and 12-bit DAC/ADC.  Judging by the die, the processor was built with standard licensed blocks, very common for such designs.  Milandr licensed the ARM Cortex-M3 itself in December of 2008, for use mainly in automotive and industrial applications. Milandr is also the very first Russian company to license and use an ARM core.

Analog Devices ADUCM322BBCZ ARM Cortex-M3 80MHz – Same basic core, but in a very much less appealing package

The package, however, is completely unique.  It is a 132 pin CQFP package. There are 33 gold leads on each side of the white ceramic package.  Each row is actually 2 staggered rows, the offset allows the finer lead pitch, and still room to bond the leads to the top of the package.  Soviet processors were often delivered in the most stunning of packages and 25 years later, Milandr keeps that tradition alive.

Each of these processors came with a brief datasheet, complete with inspection stamps for the processor. It is all in Russian, but check it out here.

Milandr made several variations of the Cortex-M3, including the VE92 and VE93 which are internally identical, but with much less I/O available owing to there smaller 64 pin and 48 pin packages respectively. Milandr also made a copy of the PIC17 processor that we covered last year.

A version of the K1986VExx continues to be made by Milandr, but renamed to the MDR32F9Qx.  It continues to have the same basic core, but in a 144 pin package, allowing even greater I/O support.

Milandr K1886VE2U PIC17C756A w/ Flash Memory

We have previously talked about the Microchip PIC17, and its less then stellar success in the market.  After being introduced in the early 1990’s it was discontinued in the early 2000’s, though Microchip continued to provide support (and some devices) to users for some time after that.

In the early 1990’s a IC company was formed in Zelenograd, Russia (just a short distance to the NW of Moscow), the silicon valley of Russia, home to the Angstrem, and Micron IC design houses.  This company was Milandr, one of the first post-Soviet IC companies, with ambitious plans, and many highly capable engineers from the Soviet times.  They are a fabless company, though with their own packaging/test facilities, specializing in high reliability metal/ceramic packages.

The K1886VE is Milandr’s version of a PIC17C756A, though updated for the 21st century.  While mask-ROM versions are available the VE2 version replaces the ROM with modern FLASH memory.  This is a upgrade that perhaps would have kept the PIC17 alive if Microchip would have done similar.  It is packaged in a 64 pins CQFP white ceramic package with a metal lid and gold leads, not what one is use to seeing a PIC in.  Production of these PICs continues at Milandr (the pictured example is from 2012), as customers still use the parts, mainly in industrial and other places where reliability is key.

The use of a PIC in high reliability applications isn’t something entirely new.  The Microhard MHX-2400 radio system, designed for small satellites such as cubesats, runs on a PIC17C756A, a version flew on NASA’s Genesat-1 in 2006 carrying bacteria samples.  Milandr does offer radiation resistant devices so its likely that some Milandr PIC has flown to space as well.