NXP LPC1100 Microprocessors
Ultra-low-power ARM Cortex M0 32-Bit MCU with 50MHz performance and up to 32KB Flash/8KB SRAM.
NXP's new ultra-lower-power LPC1100 family is the first Cortex M0 chipset on the market, and offers 32-bit performance with the low power consumption that you expect from 8 or 16-bit MCUs. This family of chips is ideal for situations where low power consumption is critical (products that need to run off batteries for extended periods of time, etc.), and where cost control is a deciding factor (most members of the LPC1100 family are available for under $1 in large quantity, or under $2 in smaller quantities from most major distributors), but a fair amount of processing power is still required. At the risk of sounding like we work for the marketing department at NXP, this is one of the most interesting chips to come out in quite some time, bringing 32-bit performance to an 8-bit energy footprint and for under $1 per chip! That's a pretty compelling combination.
The LPC1100 family supports all of the primary serial buses, including UART, I2C, and SPI, along with a 10-bit ADC. It has an built in 12MHz oscillator (ensuring that when the chip comes out of sleep mode it's in a pre-determined state), can operate at speeds up to 50MHz, and (according to our own initial tests with a prototype of our upcoming LPC1114 Reference Design) consumes less than 15mA operating at 48MHz, and around 6mA at 12MHz (and we can probably get these number a lower with a bit more effort).