Freescale
has introduced a family of 400MHz ARM9-based microcontrollers.
Dubbed i.MX25,
this is Freescale first line of applications processors to
integrate LCD and touchscreen controllers, and DDR2 memory support,
as well as interfaces for CAN, Ethernet and USB.
There are five products: two for automotive and three for
industrial or general user.
i.MX253 and 257 are for applications including residential smart
meters, graphical keypads and security panels, human machine
interface (HMI) designs, barcode scanners, factory automation and
robotics, and printers.
258 with its on-chip security engine is designed for the
industrial security market including point-of-sale.
It also includes tamper detection circuitry that erases
confidential information if a device threat is detected.
The car processors, 251 and 255, are tailored for in-vehicle
infotainment and are qualified to AECQ-100.
"We are providing on-chip integration and software development
support to help our industrial and automotive customers create
products and get them to market quickly," claimed Paul Marino,
general manager of the firm's multimedia applications division.
A hardware/software product development kit is available with
support for Linux and Windows Embedded CE.