Freescale Ships ColdFire MCU with On-Chip USB, Ethernet, CAN, Encryption, Complimentary MQX RTOS for Industrial Connectivity Designs
February 4, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
Freescale Semiconductor introduced an industrial connectivity tool that combines the 32 b ColdFire microcontroller (MCU) family with a complimentary offering of the Freescale MQX real-time operating system (RTOS).
The MCF5225x MCU family offers on-chip universal serial bus (USB), Ethernet, controller area network (CAN) and encryption, along with Freescale MQX RTOS and associated tools and software stacks.
Freescale said the combined silicon and software tool gives developers design flexibility, connectivity options and fast time to market backed by a full-featured, scalable RTOS platform.
"Recognizing that the majority of an embedded development team's resources are spent on software, we're offering our next-generation MCF5225x ColdFire devices with the market-proven Freescale MQX RTOS at no extra charge," said Aiden Mitchell, director of industrial and multimarket MCUs at Freescale.
"The combination of high-performance ColdFire MCUs and Freescale MQX software gives developers a comprehensive, cost-effective solution that helps accelerate their application development success," Mitchell said.
Based on the 32 b ColdFire V2 core, the MCF5225x MCUs can be used in a range of industrial networking, building/lighting control and medical applications.
For factory automation systems, the MCF5225x MCU's USB port can be used to develop interfaces to standard USB barcode scanners, and the embedded Fast Ethernet controller makes it possible to control various terminals in a networked building.
When used in building control applications, the MCU's embedded cryptographic accelerator unit enables secure communications through Ethernet. The MCU's USB connectivity supports fast, easy downloads of patient data for medical applications, and its serial connectivity options simplify connection to wireless modules and liquid crystal display (LCD) screens used in personal medical devices, according to Freescale.
"In today's challenging business environment, developers are looking for ways to reduce cost - through extensive software reuse and by leveraging turnkey platforms that combine best-of-breed hardware and software," said Tony Massimini, chief of technology at Semico Research Corp.
"The MCF5225x MCU family, coupled with complimentary Freescale MQX software, provides a comprehensive platform that squarely addresses the need to reduce development cost and speed time to market for industrial connectivity applications," he said.
By integrating USB device/host/on-the-go, Fast Ethernet and controller area network (CAN) on the same device, the MCF5225x family allows developers to implement the optimal connectivity protocol for their application requirements, without having to add separate communication controllers.
The MCUs also include integrated serial communications capabilities, such as a serial peripheral interface (SPI), two inter-integrated circuit (I2C) buses and three universal asynchronous receiver transmitters (UARTs).
The MCF5225x MCUs feature an on-chip cryptographic accelerator unit and random number generator designed to safeguard valuable data and intellectual property (IP) during transmissions across industrial and building control networks. The encryption module supports data encryption standard (DES), 3DES, advanced encryption standard (AES), message digest 5 algorithm (MD5) and secure hashing algorithm 1 (SHA-1).
The MCF5225x MCUs feature a 32 b ColdFire V2 core designed to deliver up to 76 Dhrystone 2.1 million instructions per second (MIPS) at 80 MHz. The devices offer embedded memory - up to 512 KB flash and 64 KB static random access memory SRAM) - for performance-intensive applications and simplified coding.
An enhanced multiply-accumulate controller (EMAC) with hardware divide capability and a direct-memory access (DMA) controller enhance system performance by freeing the ColdFire core to perform other tasks, Freescale said.
The MCF5225x family offers core frequency, on-chip memory, external memory interfaces, embedded function modules and packaging options to address a range of system performance and application needs. With the external bus, developers can add more memory and/or peripherals.
The MCF5225x MCUs ship with full production Freescale MQX RTOS source code, including communications software stacks, at no additional cost. The RTOS is available to Freescale customers with a commercial-friendly licensing model that enables them to keep their source code modifications.
Freescale MQX offers a small, configurable footprint, straightforward application programming interface (API) and a modular architecture that can fit a range of application needs, the company said.
Freescale also offers an ecosystem of software development tools, evaluation and demonstration boards, reference designs, application notes, software examples and webinars.
Source: Freescale Semiconductor Inc.