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Freescale Paves the Way for Autonomous Vehicles With Industry's First 32-Bit Flash-Based Microcontroller With FlexRay(TM); Integration of Networking Protocol With PowerPC(R) Core Targets High-End Powertrain and Chassis Applications

Posted on: Monday, 22 May 2006, 00:04 CDT

Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL) (NYSE:FSL.B) continues to steer the automotive industry toward safer, more reliable cars with the industry's first 32-bit microcontroller (MCU) based on the PowerPC(R) core with embedded flash and integrated FlexRay(TM) protocol.

This combination of features on a single chip supports advanced automotive control systems' demand for higher data transmission rates and fault tolerance.

"FlexRay is gaining international support within the automotive industry and will be used by vehicle makers to enable exciting new safety-critical and performance features, as well as making on-board networking of existing electronics systems more robust," said Chris Webber, vice president of the Automotive Practice at Strategy Analytics. "Freescale's latest PowerPC innovation integrating a 32-bit core, 2MB of embedded flash and a FlexRay controller is important in giving designers the opportunity to increase performance and functionality while reducing cost and board space."

The MPC5567 enables fault-tolerant communication at high bandwidth rates of 10Mbit/sec, reducing system cost by integrating maximum functionality on the chip. The MCU is expected to be used in high-end integrated chassis applications, as well as engine management and control for maximum performance and efficiency. The MCU coordinates and controls communication and activities between various systems in the vehicle. For example, the MPC5567's integrated FlexRay functionality is designed to enable the integrated chassis control module to communicate in a quick, deterministic and dependable manner with other electronic modules based on the FlexRay protocol in the car. This helps provide increased performance and safety in braking, stability and suspension systems.

"Freescale is the first supplier to offer this 32-bit integrated solution," said Mike McCourt, vice president and general manager of Freescale's microcontroller division. "We are ahead of the curve and anticipate automotive system suppliers needing more integrated solutions such as these in the future. The PowerPC core provides an ideal platform for system-on-a-chip designs."

The MPC5567 expands on Freescale's MPC55XX families of MCUs. Pin-compatibility throughout the entire flashed-based family gives engineers the ability to migrate their efforts from one design to another, reducing development costs and improving time to market. The MPC55XX portfolio is expected to grow with devices that proliferate with derivatives that will offer expanded sets of memory, connectivity and performance options.

Features

-- 40 - 132MHz PowerPC ISA e200z6 Core +variable length encoding

-- Binary user mode compatible with RCPU (MPC500) and e200z6/3

-- 2Mbyte RWW flash with ECC, 64k SRAM, 8k cache

-- 56 timed I/O channels - 32 channel ETPU, 24 channel EMIOS with

unified channels

-- Dual-channel FlexRay device (10Mbit/sec)

-- Fast Ethernet Controller, MMI interface

-- 5 x FlexCAN - compatible with TouCAN, 64 buffers each

-- 2 x eSCI

-- 3 x DSPI 16 bits wide up to 6 chip selects each

-- Standard serial peripheral interface (SPI) with continuous

mode and DMA support

-- Pin serialization (similar to PPM)

-- 40 channel dual ADC - up to 12 bit and up to 1.25 microsecond

conversions, six queues with triggering and DMA support

Product Availability

The MPC5567 is available now in sample quantities. The MPC5567EVB evaluation board is available now in sample quantities. For more information about these products and support available, visit: www.freescale.com/files/pr/mpc5567.html.

For MPC5567 graphics, go to http://www.freescale.com/files/pr/graphicslibrary.html.

About the FlexRay Consortium

FlexRay founders Freescale, Philips, BMW and DaimlerChrysler have been working together since 2000 to help speed the adoption of FlexRay, a communications protocol designed to handle the growing number of digital elements that make up a 21st century automobile. Over the past two years, additional automotive companies, such as Bosch, General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Audi and Siemens VDO, have joined these leaders in an effort to make FlexRay the de facto standard for advanced applications in the automotive industry. Today, more than 80 companies from the automotive, semiconductor and software industries support the FlexRay standard. FlexRay-enabled vehicles are expected to hit the market in 2006. For more information about the FlexRay Consortium, visit http://www.flexray.com.

About Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NYSE:FSL) (NYSE:FSL.B) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. Freescale became a publicly traded company in July 2004 after more than 50 years as part of Motorola, Inc. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale, a member of the S&P 500(R), is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies with 2005 sales of $5.8 billion (USD). www.freescale.com.

Freescale Technology Forum

The Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) is fast becoming the embedded semiconductor industry's premier developer conference. A global program, FTF events feature visionary keynote speakers, in-depth technical training, and interactive demonstrations from Freescale and leading hardware, software and tools providers. For detailed information about FTF events around the world, please go to www.freescale.com/ftf. Freescale Reader Inquiry Response Freescale Semiconductor P.O. Box 17927 Denver, CO 80217 USA

Freescale(TM) and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. The "PowerPC" name is a trademark of IBM Corp. and used under license. Power Architecture(TM) is a trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. (C) Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 2006.

Source: Business Wire

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