48-VFQFN exposed-pad package, 7x7 mm footprint
The LM3S801-IGZ50-C2T: The exposed thermal pad under the package requires a soldered copper land on the PCB for heat dissipation — the datasheet's recommended footprint includes a central ground plane via array to pull heat from the die.
50 MHz Cortex-M3 with 64 KB Flash, 8 KB SRAM
The ARM Cortex-M3 core runs at 50 MHz, delivering roughly 62.5 Dhrystone MIPS at zero-wait-state from flash — enough for real-time control loops, sensor fusion, or protocol bridging in a single-chip design. Program memory is 64 KB of on-chip Flash, backed by 8 KB of SRAM (8K x 8). The Flash is sufficient for a moderate firmware image with a RTOS kernel, while the SRAM handles stack, heap, and data buffers for UART or SPI transactions without external memory.
36 general-purpose I/O pins bring out the peripheral set: I²C, SPI, SSI, and UART/USART for sensor and actuator communication, plus a Quadrature Encoder Interface (QEI) for direct connection to incremental rotary encoders on motor shafts or linear slides. On-chip peripherals include brown-out detect, power-on reset, PWM, and a watchdog timer — the brown-out reset monitors the 3V–3.6V supply rail and holds the core in reset if the voltage dips below the threshold, preventing flash corruption during a power glitch.