Introduction
The MC68331, a highly-integrated 32-bit microcontroller, combines high-performance data manipulation capabilities with powerful peripheral subsystems. The MCU is built up from standard modules that interface through a common intermodule bus (IMB). Standardization facilitates rapid development of devices tailored for specific applications.

The MCU incorporates a 32-bit CPU (CPU32), a system integration module (SIM), a general-purpose timer (GPT), and a queued serial module (QSM).
The MCU can either synthesize an internal clock signal from an external reference or use an external clock input directly. Operation with a 32.768-kHz reference frequency is standard. The maximum system clock speed is 20.97 MHz. Because MCU operation is fully static, register and memory contents are not affected by a loss of clock.

High-density complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (HCMOS) architecture makes the basic power consumption of the MCU low. Power consumption can be minimized by stopping the system clock. The CPU32 instruction set includes a low-power stop (LPSTOP) command that efficiently implements this capability.